


Gone

by Reghan



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Case Fic, Family, Friendship, Gen, Kidnapping, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 24,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5784811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reghan/pseuds/Reghan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two of the BAUs beloved team members are missing and time is running out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Bad Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi! I'm super excited to post this on here! I received an amazing response where I previously posted this! I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear your thoughts :) Please comment :) There are 21 chapters and all will be posted relatively quickly!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two of the BAUs beloved team members are missing and time is running out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Y'all are in for one hell of a ride :) Enjoy! Please comment, I love to know what you guys are thinking!

Penelope Garcia awoke, her heart racing. She'd had a nightmare, but she couldn't remember what it was about. Only that she desperately needed to talk to someone about it. She knew right away the one person that could make it all better, her best friend, Derek Morgan. She grabbed the phone off her nightstand and dialed his number, which she knew by heart. He didn't answer.

"Huh?" Garcia wondered aloud. That was weird, he always answered, even when she called him at 3AM. She tried him twice more, the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach growing with every unanswered ring. After he didn't answer the third time she knew exactly what she had to do. Something was wrong, she could just feel it.

"Sir I know it's late, or early, however you think of it and I'm sorry for waking you, but Derek's not answering his phone, he always answers when I call...even at 3AM. I called him 3 times and he's still not answering, I'm worried that something's wrong. I've got a bad feeling, like this horrible pit in my stomach and-"

Hotch cut her off immediately awake at the distress in the tech analysts voice. "I'll be at Morgan's in 10 minutes, I'll call you as soon as I know anything." He said and hung up. He got dressed and headed out as fast as he could.

Garcia anxiously awaited a call from Hotch, she needed to know that her chocolate thunder was safe. She started to get dressed, knowing there was no way she was going to get any sleep now. As soon as her phone rang she jumped to answer it.

"You were right, something is wrong. He's not here, but it looks like there was definitely a struggle. I'll call David, you call the others." Garcia felt panicky, but tried to push it down as she dialed JJ's number.

"Oh God, my boy." She whispered as she waited for JJ to answer

"Hello?" A sleepy JJ mumbled on the other end.

"Jayje, something's wrong, we need you at the office."

"Pen, what-" JJ was cut off.

"No time Jayje, just get there." She interrupted, wanting to make sure the others were okay.

She went to call Reid next. He didn't answer. She wasn't surprised, he was a pretty heavy sleeper. She tried him again. Still no answer. She tried him a third time and started to feel a little uneasy.

She called Hotch while she grabbed her keys and started to head out. "Reid isn't answering either, will you-"

"On it." Hotch said, hanging up before she could even finish her sentence. She drove to the BAU faster than usual. Her mind was racing and she was struggling to keep calm.

Once she'd arrived at the BAU she practically ran inside. The only one there was Rossi. She was too fidgety, so she stayed standing, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive.

"Garcia, have a seat will you, you're making ME nervous." Rossi said after a few minutes of her standing there. She sat down next to him and he gently put his hand over hers as they waited, providing her with some comfort. JJ entered the room just as her phone beeped with a text from Hotch.

"Reid's gone, obvious signs of struggle, on my way to you." That was all the text said.

"Oh god." Garcia's eyes automatically filled with tears.

OOOOOOOOO

JJ immediately hurried over and put a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Penelope what is going on?" JJ asked, concerned.

"Morgan and Reid are missing. Hotch said there were signs of a struggle at both homes." Garcia couldn't bring herself to say anymore.

JJ's hand immediately tightened on Garcia's shoulder. Garcia reached up and gripped it, her hands shook horribly.

JJ could feel her friend was about to lose it and that would help no one. She sat down beside Penelope and made her look at her.

"Penelope, they are okay. We have to believe that. They're both strong and wherever they are, they're fighting like hell. We need to focus here. Would it help you if we brought Kevin in?"

Penelope turned to face JJ and nodded. JJ took one of her hands and held it tightly while she made the call. "Kevin, sorry to wake you, but Morgan and Reid are missing. We need your help."

Kevin agreed to be there right away and JJ turned back to her friend who seemed to be really struggling.

"We don't know anything yet, they could be just fine..." JJ didn't really believe that, but she had to stay strong for her. She leaned over and embraced her friend. They sat like that for a minute until JJ could feel her starting to calm down. JJ glanced over at Rossi who seemed to be pretending not to notice. He knew all too well that Penelope hated it when everyone watched her break down and knew that JJ would make sure she pulled it together.

Garcia finally managed to get ahold of herself thanks to JJ. She understood that she needed to keep it together, because breaking down wasn't going to bring her Derek back to her. She was still holding one of JJ's hands, giving her something to focus on. They sat like that in silence, waiting for their team leader to arrive.

Hotch walked in and everyone tensed up. He didn't waste a second.

"Whoever has them left a message for us." Hotch said quickly, placing the note on the table where they could all see it.

Everyone flinched a little when they saw it. The note simply said "Good Luck." It wasn't what the note said that made them flinch, but rather the fact that it was written in what looked like blood.

"We're short two team members, I already called Emily, she's on her way here. We're going to need her."


	2. Agents in Peril

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two agents discover that they are no longer safe at home...

Derek Morgan awoke feeling groggy and confused. He sat up slowly, rubbing his temples. It took him a moment to realize that he was lying on a hard surface. His eyes began to adjust to the dark and he looked around. He wasn't in his house and he definitely wasn't anywhere he recognized.

"What the hell?" He wondered aloud. The room he was in was tiny. He was surrounded by concrete walls and didn't even see a door anywhere. It was almost like a basement except without stairs or doors. Morgan shivered, it was cold as hell down here. 

Shit, this wasn't good, not at all. He managed to stand with one hand pressed against the concrete wall. He began to feel around the walls, looking for a way out, he stopped when he almost tripped over something...or someone.

He heard a groan directly in front of him and jumped. "Who's here?" He demanded.

"Morgan?" A familiar voice replied groggily.

Morgan squinted at the figure and recognized him immediately. "Reid!" He dropped to his knees beside him. "Hey kid, you alright?" He helped him sit up a little against the wall.

"Morgan, where are we?" Spencer Reid asked, seriously out of it.

"I don't know kid, but it sure as hell ain't good." He said, running a hand over the top of his recently shaved head.

His eyes were well adjusted by now and he could see a little box on the other side of the room.

Once again he used the wall to help him and made his way over to it. Inside he could see one small blanket, one bottled water and a note which he couldn't read because it was too dark.

He grabbed the blanket and water and made his way back to Reid. From what he could see of Reid, he looked a hell of a lot worse than Morgan felt. Reid had slumped over and his whole body seemed to be shaking.

He knelt beside him again and tossed the blanket over Reid's shivering body. "Hey kid, I need you to sit up and drink this." Morgan opened the water and slid an arm behind his friend's back.

He managed to get Reid to take a few sips before taking a small sip himself. He put the top back on it. He didn't want to risk running out since he didn't know how long they'd be down there.

Morgan struggled to remember how he'd gotten there. He remembered a noise waking him up, like a loud crash. Then he was fighting someone...no not one person, three people...or maybe it was four. He couldn't think clearly. Something had knocked him out, they'd hit him with an object, maybe the butt of a gun?

Morgan rubbed his temples and sighed frustrated.

He slid down, sitting against the wall next to his friend. His thoughts were scattered, his memories seemed mixed up. He couldn't seem to figure out what memories were real and which were not.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, feeling frustrated. His thoughts suddenly jumped to his team. He had no idea what time it was, but surely they would have noticed the absence of two agents by now. He tried to imagine how they would react, just to keep himself busy.

Hotch would be worried, but he wouldn't show it to the rest of the team. His face would remain as neutral as it always was. He would put all of his emotion into his work.

Rossi would probably be more angry than anything. He was most likely focused on "catching this son of a bitch."

JJ would probably be the most focused out of any of them. She would be the one holding the team together. She was good that way, kind of like the glue of the team.

And finally he thought of his baby girl, Penelope Garcia. She was his best friend and the most emotional member of the team. She was probably struggling to keep it together, but she would. Of course she'd probably break down a few times, as she often did, but she would get the job done. She always did.

Morgan knew they would find them, he just didn't know how long it would take them. He hoped it would be quickly, they didn't have any food and they only had the one water bottle.

OOOOOOOO

A few minutes...or maybe it was hours later he heard a loud bang and and a few voices chatting coming from somewhere above them.

Suddenly light flooded the room, now so bright compared to the darkness he'd gotten used to that Derek had to shut his eyes.

"Ahh good you're awake. I was hoping you would be." Derek squinted through the sudden brightness and tried to make out who it was.

His eyes began to adjust and he blinked. He recognized the man, but he couldn't seem to remember where he knew him from. He was a tall white male, probably in his late 20s- early 30s, and he clearly didn't plan on releasing them anytime soon...if ever.

Derek glanced away from the man focusing instead on the door, which was in the ceiling. He now saw the room more clearly. It was basically an extremely small storm cellar, the kind that they built underneath houses back in the early 70s. He glanced back at the man and noticed that the man was now watching him.

"Don't even think about it. I WILL kill your friend here if you even try to escape." Morgan brought his gaze back to the man's hand and noticed the gun pointed at Reid.


	3. Something that wasn't there before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team struggles to find anything to help with the case until Garcia uncovers something new...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments so far! Keep them up, I really enjoy them. :)

The team had sat around for about fifteen minutes discussing what was going to happen. They weren't going to work any other cases obviously until they're team members were found. Garcia zoned out while he instructed the other team members. It wasn't until she heard her name that she looked up

"Garcia, get that tested for DNA." Hotch instructed, pointing at the note. Garcia nodded and went off to do as she was told.

OOOOOO

 

Garcia stared at her blank computer screens for a moment before booting up her babies. As it turned out, the note had been a dead end, there was no trace of DNA on it. Normally she wouldn't be the one testing it, but these were special circumstances and there was nobody else in to do it.

The rest of the team had split up and gone back to the houses to look for any evidence that may have been left behind. JJ had gone to Reid's place and Rossi and Hotch had gone to Morgan's place. Emily wasn't due to arrive for another four hours which left Garcia to fend for herself until the team returned.

Kevin Lynch, hadn't showed as promised, though she wasn't surprised. It was after all 5AM on a Saturday. She guessed he'd probably just rolled over and gone back to sleep. They were currently on a break, but that wasn't news to anyone. They'd been on and off ever since Kevin told her he wanted to get married. She envied Kevin right now. A part of her wished she could be at home, in bed.

Garcia yawned just at the thought of sleep. She knew she wouldn't be able to get any real sleep until her friends were home safe. She watched as her screens lit up one by one. 

She opened a drawer and pulled out her knitting stuff. Knitting always seemed to help her relax. Right now she needed to relax so she could be ready if the team needed anything.

It seemed like hours went by before she heard anything, although it had only been about twenty minutes.

Her phone buzzed and she opened the message right away. 'Nothing new unfortunately, going to meet up with Hotch and Rossi', JJ had sent her.

Garcia sighed, feeling frustrated and useless. Until they had something to go off of there was absolutely nothing she could do to help her friends.

Garcia pulled open the drawer beside her again until she found what she was looking for. There was a picture of her, Reid, Morgan and JJ at JJ's wedding. She stared at it. "Please let my babies be okay." She hoped out loud to her empty office.

She started to feel like she'd been sitting for too long. Her office suddenly felt too cramped. She stood, unable to sit there any longer. She exited her office, closing the door behind her. Garcia knew nobody would be here. Generally agents didn't start showing up until at least 8AM.

She sighed and just started walking. She wasn't sure where she was going until she was outside his door.

She opened the door to Derek Morgan's office and stepped inside. As soon as she was inside, she went to his desk and sat down. It smelled like him in here. God she missed him so much. She needed her best friend to be okay. She needed both of them to be okay.

"Derek, wherever you are, please just keep fighting. I know you and I know that you will do whatever you can to keep Reid safe, but don't forget about yourself too. We need both of our friends back." Being there in his office, she felt almost as if he was there with her. She felt safe there.

Garcia started to drift off a little bit into an uneasy sleep, her phone still in her hand, ready in case she was needed. She startled awake, and looked around, taking a second to remember where she was. She glanced down at her phone, it was a text from JJ. 'Still nothing, we're headed back.'

Garcia rubbed her eyes and stood up slowly, feeling a little sluggish. She was about to walk away when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye that she was certain hadn't been there when she'd been in here yesterday to visit Morgan. She always came to visit whenever the team returned from a particularly tough case.

This most recent case had involved a serial killer that had slaughtered over 26 children in the past 2 years so it had been incredibly hard on the team. Derek was especially upset though of course he'd insisted he was fine. They hadn't managed to get to the child in time and that didn't sit well with anyone.

She pushed the thoughts of yesterday's case away and walked closer to it the corner of his desk. Sure enough there was a piece of paper. She couldn't see what it said. She felt around in the dark for the light switch and flipped it on. 

Garcia let out a huge gasp. She recognized what it was right away. It was a code...not just any code, but a code only a hacker would know. There was a message typed On top of the paper that said, "if you want to see your friends and see for yourself that they're alive, follow this code. But don't take your time Penelope because there isn't much left. "

Garcia grabbed the paper and ran to her office, already dialing JJ's number. She was terrified that whoever it was knew her too, but she pushed those thoughts away and put on a brave face.

"Jayje I think I've got something! Get your pretty little butts back here stat." She hung before JJ could reply. She was going to crack this code and get this bastard. She was going to get her friends back home where they belonged.


	4. Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two agents need a plan to get out...

Morgan watched over his friend for what felt like days, but had only really been a few hours.

Reid had been in and out of consciousness and was finally well enough to sit up on his own. He'd been making small progress over the last, well however many hours they'd been there. First he'd been able to drink on his own, then he was awake for longer periods of time and finally after they'd been sitting quietly for a long while Reid spoke up. 

Reid had drank most of the water already and Morgan let him because it was clear that he needed it. It seemed to be helping.

"Did you know him?" Reid asked suddenly.

"What?" Morgan asked, snapping out of a daydream he'd been having about getting the hell out of here.

"The unsub, at least the one we saw earlier, did you know him?" Reid repeated.

"I don't know kid, he seemed familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen him." Morgan shook his head, staring at a spot on the wall, trying to remember.

"Do you think he could be an unsub from a previous case?" Reid continued.

"I don't know Reid. I just said I can't remember." Morgan sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"But do you-" Reid started to ask another question, but Morgan interrupted before he could finish.

"Reid enough with the twenty questions!" Morgan snapped. He was upset that he couldn't get them out of this situation and that they were even there in the first place. He was also angry at himself for recognizing the unsub, but being unable to to remember from where.

Morgan began to pace around again for the 400th time. The lights were on so he could see everything clearly. The room was made of stone, almost like it had been dug out by hand and the walls were a disgusting greenish gray.

"Dammit!" Morgan shouted, punching the wall. He regretted it as soon as he'd done it. There was already blood on his knuckles.

"Ahhh shit, son of bitch! Goddammit! That hurt!" He exclaimed loudly, shaking out his hand.

Reid rolled his eyes. "This is why we don't punch walls Morgan. It doesn't help anything if you injure yourself even more."

"Shut up ." Morgan mumbled under his breath.

"I heard that you know." Reid informed him.

"Good." Morgan muttered, clutching his now swelling hand in the other.

"What the hell are we supposed to do now? Just sit here and wait for them to kill us?" Morgan almost screamed with frustration. He couldn't bear the thought of going out this way. They'd always beat the bad guys before, so they would beat them again...right?

"No Morgan, we wait for the team to find us, they will, I know they will. We just have to believe it."

"Are we talking about Santa Claus now?" Morgan scoffed, giving his friend the "you're crazy" look. This was a look that Reid often received from Morgan.

"No, we're talking about our team. They will never give up on us." Reid said, though he didn't sound completely sure of what he was saying.

"But we can't just sit around and wait for them to find us Reid, we need a plan." Morgan announced.

"Okay mr. Badass, any great ideas? Oh I know, we can shoot webs from our hands and use them to propel ourselves through the door on the CEILING." Reid said sarcastically.

As soon as Morgan heard the word badass come out of Reid's mouth he started cracking up.

"What? What did I say?" Reid asked, seriously clueless.

"I've never heard you swear before Doctor." Morgan laughed and soon Reid joined in.

Morgan was glad they were able to find humor, even in the dark situation they were currently facing.

"Actually doctors are five times more likely to-" Reid began

Morgan cut him off again. "Reid if you finish that sentence I will seriously consider knocking you right back out." They were both laughing hysterically.

After a few minutes they both calmed down and Morgan sat down once again beside his friend.

"You were right you know?" Reid spoke up again, pulling Morgan from his own little world again.

"About what?" Morgan asked glancing over at him.

"We do need a plan and I've got an idea." Reid smiled.


	5. Don't call me Pumpkin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just read it?? #SUCKYSUMMARIES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO FRIENDS :)   
> Here's chapter 5   
> Please comment, I love to know what my readers are thinking and I'd love to her your predictions :)

Garcia started typing furiously as soon as she sat down in front of here babies. She didn't want to waste any time waiting for the others. She just wanted to find her friends and get them home. The code was oddly complicated so whoever was doing this definitely had experience with computers. Fortunately for Penelope Garcia the code was easy to crack.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't realize right away what exactly it was they'd given her. It was a link to a live video feed. She opened it and tears filled her eyes immediately. Oh god it was like Tobias Hankel all over again.

She could see Derek and Reid. They both had visible cuts and bruises and looked exhausted. She turned up her volume with the click of a button and realized she could hear them.

"That could work," Derek was saying. "But we have to do it at the right time, if this fails then they'll probably kill us."

"You're right, everything has to go perfectly or they'll kill us both." Reid agreed.

Garcia wished she could just reach into her screen and pull them out of that dark horrible place they were in. It looked like a dungeon from the 18th century. Even with the lights on it still looked dark and cold. Her boys. She just wanted them to be okay.

"When should we do this?" Reid asked.

"When we've thought it out and looked at every angle thoroughly. We need all of our strength. We should sleep, but not at the same time. One of us should be awake, just in case something happens."

Garcia could hear a loud bang as something swung open and she watched in horror as someone came down the steps.

"Welcome to the show Penelope!" She didn't recognize the voice an the figure was wearing a hood that covered his face completely.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Derek demanded.

While Derek was talking, Reid had been looking around.

Garcia watched as Reid nudged Derek and moved his eyes slightly up and to the right.

"What kind of sick game is this?" Derek demanded.

"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?!" The unsub demanded. There was a loud smack as something hit Derek across the face, she could see what it was, but a second later she could see blood dripping down his cheek.

She gasped and more tears slid down her cheeks, she wasn't sure how much more of this she could watch. She heard footsteps again. At first she thought it was from the screen, but then she realized they were actually coming from down the hall.

She shot out of the chair and practically ran down the hall. "Guys! You have to see this!" She rounded the corner and BAM! She ran smack into Kevin Lynch.

"Woah easy there. Are you okay? JJ said you needed some help and so I-" he'd reached out to steady her and as soon as she was steady she was moving again

"No time to talk!" She shouted, already half back down the hall.

She went back to her computers, she wanted to see them again, make sure they were really there, but when she reached her office they were gone. The link had disconnected.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Garcia ran to the computer and began typing away, trying to get it back. It was no use, the link had gone offline and she couldn't get it back. She knew that it could go back online any time and as soon as it did she would know, she wasn't leaving this office until she knew they were safe.

"What's wrong pumpkin?" She heard a voice behind her.

"Kevin, don't call me that anymore! We are not together!" She snapped, walking faster. Kevin was practically running to keep up with her.

"Get over there and find the location this feed was streaming from, I'll try and get it back online." There was a way to do it, but it was going to take time.

She didn't even look at Kevin. She heard him typing away a few moments later.

She pulled out her phone and shot JJ a quick text. "My office, PRONTO." She sent.

Two minutes later she heard footsteps, this time it was more than one person. She felt a presence behind her and looked up. It was JJ. Garcia was practically sobbing all the while still typing as fast as she could.

"What's wrong, Garcia? Slow down." JJ leaned down and took Garcia's hands, squeezing them tightly.

"Take a deep breath and tell us what happened." Rossi said, moving forward and resting a hand on her shoulder.

"I saw them, it was them. It was Derek and Reid!" Penelope exclaimed, practically hysterical.

"Garcia you're not making any sense, where did you see them?" Hotch asked, also stepping closer.

"Here." She gestured to her screens. "I've been trying to get them back, but the feed went offline and whoever set this up is good. He knows what he's doing." Garcia kept talking, he started speaking so fast it was hard to understand her.

"Wait wait, how did you find the feed?" Rossi asked.

"Oh!" Garcia grabbed the paper from under her keyboard and have it to Rossi.

"What the hell is it?" Rossi asked, squinting at the paper.

"It's a code, hackers use this kind of code to send links that are undetectable to those that don't know code." Garcia explained.

JJ let go of Garcia's hand and she started typing right away.

"What are you doing now?" Hotch asked.

"I'm trying to get it back, but whoever did this is pretty damn good, it's going to take some time...I may not even be able to." Penelope said feeling utterly frustrated.

"Let us know as soon as it's back." Hotch said.

Everyone had forgotten Kevin Lynch's presence in the room, but if they had been watching him, they might have noticed the strange and incredibly creepy smirk on his face as he listened to Garcia speak.


	6. Plans and tunnels and things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reid has a plan!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter! One of my faves :) Enjoy! And comment thoughts and predictions!

"We need a plan and I've got an idea." Reid said with confidence.

"Okay genius, what's this brilliant idea?" Morgan asked, a little skeptically.

"Do you see that spot on the wall that looks different from the rest? You wouldn't notice it unless you really stared at it." Reid explained.

Morgan stared at it, trying to see what he saw. He shook his head, "I don't see anything.

Reid sighed a little irritated that Morgan couldn't see what was obviously there...then again, neither had the unsubs. He stood and walked over to the wall on the opposite side of the room. 

"Back in the older days when there was an abundance of slaves, this used to be a safe house. Whoever built this place has to have been a conductor during the time of the Underground Railroad. This," Reid said, pausing to pry the edges of the wall, "is a tunnel."

It took Reid a minute, but suddenly part of the wall came out. It was all in one piece, almost like a little door. Reid set the piece on the ground, got on his hands and knees and peered inside.

Morgan stared at it, clearly shocked "What the...how the hell did you know that...never mind, I don't want to know. Where do you think it leads to? Do you think they know about it? And also...uh I'm not going to fit through there, so what's the plan?" He had so many questions, but he forced himself to shut up and listen.

Reid had known Morgan wouldn't fit, otherwise he would have just said, "let's make a run for it." But no he couldn't say that because the tunnel wasn't big enough. It was obviously it was meant for woman and children. Reid however was smaller than the average man. Morgan's shoulders were too broad, there was no way he'd ever get inside.

Reid paused for a moment. "Most likely it leads to another safe house. They probably didn't know about it, otherwise they would have closed it off." Reid said, he paused again before responding to the next question. "Well, I can fit. I'll crawl through to the other side and get help." Reid hated to leave his friend behind, but it was the best shot they had at getting out of here alive.

Morgan hated the idea of staying here while his friend crawled through a dark tunnel alone.

"How long are these tunnels?" Morgan asked.

"Some of them go on for as much as 30 miles, but most of them were usually about 5 miles. This one is most likely about 6, judging from the area were in." Reid picked up the little piece of the wall and pushed it back into place.

Reid went back to his spot and they say in silence for a few minutes, thinking.

"This could work, but we have to do it at the right time. If this fails then they'll probably kill us." Morgan said, running a hand over his head like he always did when he was nervous or upset.

"You're right," Reid agreed. "We have to do this perfectly or they'll kill us both."

"When should we do this?" Reid asked.

"When we've thought it out and looked at every angle thoroughly. We need all of our strength. We should sleep, but not at the same time. One of us should be awake, just in case something happens." 

Suddenly there was a loud bang as the door in the ceiling swung open and the same unsub as before approached them.

Reid held his breath for a moment, hoping they hadn't been found out and Morgan stared straight into the eyes of the man. He had a hood on this time, but Morgan could still see his eyes. After a moment he broke eye contact.

"Welcome to the show Penelope!" The unsub said, sounding rather excited.

Morgan froze for half a second. His baby girl could see them, he didn't want her to have to see them like this.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Morgan demanded, feeling himself get all wound up.

While Morgan was talking, Reid had been looking around. He spotted the camera in the right corner. There's no way it had been on before because Reid would have noticed the green light that was now on.

"What kind of sick game is this!" Morgan demanded, feeling the rage boiling up inside him.

"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?!" The unsub yelled.

Morgan hadn't seen the whip until it was right in front of his face and then BAM! The unsub whacked him right on the cheek. Derek let out a loud groan. That had hurt like hell.

"Now, are you going to behave?" He asked smirking.

Morgan just glared at him.

"I think Penelope's seen enough." He said. He pulled something out of his pocket and clicked a button and the camera light changed back to red.

"I'll be back in a few hours, please behave boys, we wouldn't want me to have to hurt you anymore...yet."

The man left the room and slammed the door.

Morgan turned to Reid. "There's no time, you have to go." He said quietly.

"I know, but Morgan, when he comes back he needs to think that you knew nothing about this. You need to act like you were asleep the whole time and when he comes in he needs to wake you up. You need to be mad that I left without you and that you didn't know how I got out, got it?" Reid stood and so did Morgan.

"Yeah, I got it." Reid went over to the wall and once again pried the little door from the wall.

He put the piece down and walked back to Morgan.

"Hey pretty boy. Just uh, Take care of yourself kid, and hurry your skinny ass through that tunnel, I could really use a cheeseburger right about now." Morgan grinned at his friend and pulled him into a hug.

"I will. Stay safe and don't do anything stupid. There's multiple unsubs, you can't overpower them." Morgan released his friend and Reid knelt in front of the tunnel.

"See you soon kid." Morgan said leaning down and holding up his fist. Reid smiled and reached up to bump Morgan's fist with his own. He'd finally gotten that fist bump.

"Yeah, see you soon." Reid promised before crawling inside the small dark tunnel. He started to crawl as quickly as he could, he hated the dark. This wasn't just dark though, this was pitch black. This was going to be a long and terrifying journey.

Morgan put the piece of wall back in place where it was before and walked over to where he'd been sitting. He picked up the blanket and sat down. Please make it Reid, he thought to himself before laying down and closing his eyes. He hadn't realized how exhausted he was until that moment and it didn't take long for him to drift off in a deep sleep.


	7. Karma is one hell of a bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily Prentiss....................

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my favorite chapters :) Enjoy!

Garcia tried everything she could think of to get the camera back on, but nothing she did worked. She'd been at it for 2 hours and still nothing. Frustrated tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt like she had failed her friends. She rested her head on the desk in front of her, trying to figure out how to help them.

The team had gone back to the round table to discuss what to do next, while Garcia was trying to make the camera work again. Suddenly she felt a hand on her back, she jumped up, nearly falling over when she tripped over her own feet.

"Woah, easy there PG. You okay?" a familiar voice said. She looked up and her eyes filled with yet more tears.

"Emily thank god you're here." Garcia took a few steps and closed the distance between them. She threw her arms around Emily.

Emily wrapped her arms around her friend and squeezed. She'd missed it here, it felt good to be back, but she wished it were under better circumstances.

"Thank you for coming." Garcia said, her voice thick with emotions.

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else PG. What do you need? Anything I can help with?" She asked.

"I've got nothing. I feel so useless." Garcia said quietly, still clinging to her friend.

"PG you are not useless, you are a huge part of the team. Think about all those cases this team has solved because of you." Emily pulled back and looked at Garcia, she lifted her hand and wiped away a few tears from Garcia's cheeks.

"Because of you, we know that Morgan and Reid are out there, alive. We will find them. Have you eaten anything yet today?" Emily asked, genuinely concerned for her friend.

Garcia looked completely worn out and Emily doubted she had eaten. She looked a little...unsteady.

Garcia shook her head and Emily put an arm around her waist. "Come on PG, let's go get some food, everyone's waiting for us."

"Okay." Garcia agreed, staying close to Emily's side. She didn't have the energy to argue.

OOOOOOOOO

Emily, JJ, Rossi, Hotch, and Garcia were sitting at a table in a nearby diner discussing any possible leads they might have. Garcia was only half listening. She was thinking about the voice she'd heard on the camera. Why the hell had it sounded so familiar? Garcia began pushing around the food on her plate, she didn't really feel like eating right now.

A name suddenly popped into her head, it wasn't a name she'd been expecting though. Kevin Lynch. But it wasn't Kevin, Kevin had been with them at the time that the video was taken. Garcia put down her fork and focused on a memory that seemed distant and blurry.

Think Garcia, you know that voice... finally the memory surfaced and her eyes went wide. The team was all too invested in their conversation to notice Garcia's change in expression.

"Guys." Her voice was shaky and quiet, but everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

"I...I just remembered something." All the color had drained from her cheeks and she had a horrified look on her face.

"What's wrong Pen? What did you remember?" JJ asked, reaching over and taking her hand.

"Do you remember that awkward date I had with Kevin, the one after we'd broken up?" JJ nodded and Garcia continued. "He said he wanted to fix things and I told him that wasn't possible. He introduced me to a friend that night, someone he said he'd only recently met. I recognize his voice Jayje, he was the one in the video."

"You're sure?" Emily asked from Garcia's other side.

"Yes, something about him made me uncomfortable. It was something in his voice and I recognize that same something in the voice on the camera. I just know..."

"Did he tell you his name?" Rossi asked, leaning forward.

"Thomas O'hare." Garcia said quickly.

Garcia started to comprehend what this could mean and swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat.

"Do you think Kevin had something to do with this?" Garcia asked, looking around at her team.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out. Let's go." Hotch said, putting down his fork and standing up. The rest of the team followed suit. Garcia, JJ and Emily walked hand in hand to the SUV. She was grateful to have them by her side.

"It'll be okay Pen, we'll figure it out, we always do." JJ said, giving her hand a small squeeze.

OOOOOOOO

"What do you mean he's not here?" Hotch asked Kevin Lynch's supervisor.

"He left about an hour ago, said he wasn't feeling well." Hotch turned to his team, looking extremely displeased.

"Rossi, JJ and I will go to Kevin's home. Prentiss, you and Garcia find out everything you can about this Thomas guy." Hotch said.

Garcia was already heading towards her office, Emily right on her heels.

A few minutes later the phone in Garcia's office rang.

"Speak and be heard." Penelope answered, sounding a little more hopeful than she had before.

"He's not here, can you see if you can track his cell phone?" Hotch asked.

"On it." Garcia said, typing quickly. "His phone must be off, I've got nothing. But we did find Thomas O'hare and it wasn't pretty."

"What'd you find?"

"Adopted at 2. Mom died when he was 7, dad died a year later. Lived with his grandmother until she passed away. He was 13 when he was moved into a foster home. He got into lots of trouble over the next 10 years. Multiple arrests, armed robbery, assault, property damage and an attempted murder charge when he was 17. He was in jail for 3 years. He must have a had a really good lawyer." Penelope spit out the information as fast as she could.

"Anything else?" Hotch questioned, knowing there had to be more.

"Uh yeah, it says here he had two brothers who were separated when he was adopted. But that they were all arrested when Thomas was 16 for theft. Charges were dropped." Prentiss said, cutting in.

"So they know each other, okay thanks." Hotch hung up and went to tell the others.

OOOOOOO

 

Kevin Lynch drove faster than he should have been, Thomas and his brothers had screwed up. Spencer Reid was never part of the plan. He'd specifically said Derek Morgan, but Thomas hadn't done as he was instructed. He should have just done it himself instead of hiring a hit man. Thomas wasn't just any hit man though, he was sadistic son of a bitch who was turned on my any sort of torture. He wasn't content with just Derek.

Ugh, he hated the way Derek and Penelope looked at each other. It was sickening. She claimed they were just best friends, but he'd never truly believed it. It wasn't supposed to go like this and now he had to fix it. Everything was messed up, Penelope was never going choose him if she found out, so he had to make sure she never did. He had to end this now if he wanted his girl back. 

He pressed his foot harder on the peddle accelerating even more. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't even see it coming until it was too late. He tried to swerve, but smashed right into another truck, going full speed.


	8. Thomas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some members of the BAU finds some disturbing albums...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the Kudos! Please comment! I'd love to know what you think :)

The tunnel-Spencer Reid

Reid had never been more terrified in his life than he was right now. He didn't know how long he'd been crawling for or how long he'd have to continue. His muscles ached, begging him to stop, but he pushed on thinking of his friends. There were tiny holes drilled above and to the side of him. Thank god for those or there would be no oxygen.

He crawled as fast as he could manage, stopping every so often to take a break. He was exhausted, but continued to push himself. He estimated he'd been crawling for about three hours and that he probably had at least another two or three to go. Keep going, you can make it. He kept telling himself this as he went even faster.

BAU- Penelope Garcia and Emily Prentiss

For the next two hours the team searched through Kevin's home for any clues he may have left behind.

She and Emily had been catching up on each others lives while they waited since there wasn't much else for them to do until the team needed something.

"Em, do you think they're okay?" Garcia asked suddenly.

"Of course I do. Do you really think Derek Morgan is going to go down without a fight?" Emily smiled and squeezed her hand. 

"You're right. Reid's probably annoying the heck out of Morgan right now." Both girls laughed.

"That is, if Morgan hasn't already knocked him out." Emily joked. 

"God I've missed you Em." Garcia said.

"I've missed you too PG." Emily replied.

 

Kevin's home- JJ, Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi

"Guys, there's something here you might want to see." JJ said, a little creeped out by what she had just found.

JJ was standing by Kevin's bedroom closet with a box of albums at her feet. As Rossi and Hotch moved closer to her they noticed she was holding one in her hands.

JJ held it up for them to see. Inside were pictures of Penelope Garcia. Some were of Kevin and Garcia, but most were candid shots of her.

JJ handed the album to Hotch and handed another to Rossi before picking up a third for herself.

JJ opened to the first page and her eyes widened. The page was labeled "My Angel's Has the Sexiest Body" and inside were photos that there was no way Garcia would have ever agreed to. JJ closed it quickly and snatched the other two from Hotch and Rossi.

"JJ we have to go through these, there might be clues-" JJ cut him off.

"Emily and I will go through these. Trust me, there are some things you just shouldn't see as her boss." JJ shoved them back into the box and picked it up.

"Oh I see, um-" Hotch was saved from having to respond as his cell phone rang. He started to walk away before answering.

"Hotchner." JJ watched his face for any clue as to who it was.

"You're sure, when?" Hotch said, his voice sounded strained as if he was receiving some bad news. 

There was a long pause.

"Okay thank you for letting us know." Hotch hung up and turned towards JJ and Rossi.

"Kevin Lynch is dead, according to witnesses someone tried to run him off the road and he swerved into an oncoming car going about eighty." JJ gasped and her hand automatically went to her mouth.

"We should get back to the BAU before Garcia finds out from someone else...and JJ bring those with you." He started out the door and his team quickly followed.

 

UNSUBS

Liam O'hare walked back inside the abandoned house where his brothers were waiting for him. He was smiling, knowing Thomas was going to be proud of him. He'd finally done something right and he was going to make sure Nathan and Thomas knew it.

"Thomas, I did it!" He said excitedly. "He's dead!" 

He entered the nearly empty dining room where Thomas and was sitting.

"As a doornail?" He asked, looking up at his brother.

"Deader than a doornail Tommy!" Thomas stood and walked over to his little brother.

"And you did it quietly like I asked? Nobody knows he's dead?" Thomas stared down his brother.

"Well, not exactly. I tried to run him off the road and he collided with another car." Liam said anxiously, avoiding his brother's gaze.

"You idiot! You fucking idiot! All I asked was for you to kill Kevin quietly! I knew I should have sent Nathan to do it! God you can't do anything right, you're useless! Did anybody see you do it?" He roared, spit flying from his mouth.

"I don't know, I think someone might have-" Thomas lifted his fist and punch his brother square in the jaw. The blow was so strong that it sent him back two feet, where he landed against the wall. He looked up at his brother with pleading eyes.

"Thomas please, I-" Thomas spat in his brother's face.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? How long do you think it's going to be before they put two and two together!? We're screwed, we need to get rid of them and get the hell out of here!" Thomas paused and glared at Liam. "And by we, I mean Nathan and I. You're on your own." Thomas gave his brother a look of disgust before exiting the room to go find Nathan.

"Nathan we have to move. Liam screwed up again. They're going to find us if we don't get out of here." He said, heading towards the bedroom that had been his Nathan's for the past year.

"We're not leaving him behind." Nathan said, trying to push past Thomas to get to Liam.

"He's the reason we're in this mess!" Thomas said angrily.

"We're not leaving our brother behind. We're family." Nathan repeated.

"I can't take it anymore! The both of you are goddamn pussies! I don't need you, I don't need either of you. I work better without you anyway! Have fun" Nathan took a step back and stared at Thomas.

"You're not serious bro..." 

"The hell I ain't!" Thomas glared at Nathan.

"If you leave us here we'll tell them everything." Nathan glared right back at his brother.

"Then I guess I'll have to make sure you can't tell anyone anything." Thomas said, reaching his hand into his back pocket. He pulled out his gun and aimed it straight at his brother's head.

"Woah, hey no need for that man." Nathan sounded panicked, "I was just kidding, we won't tell anyone. Please Thomas, we're brothers! Don't-" a shot rang out, cutting him off and Nathan's body dropped to the ground with a loud thump.

"Goodbye baby brother. You can rest now." Thomas gently shut the door and began to make his way downstairs to take care of Liam...and not in the caring, nurturing sense of the word.

He entered the living room, holding his gun behind his back and stopped dead in his tracks. Liam wasn't where he'd left him. He turned and ran to the front door. The door was wide open and the truck was gone.


	9. Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team gives Garcia some bad news and Reid discovers what's at the end of the tunnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you like this chapter :) Another favorite of mine!

When they arrived back at the BAU, Hotch sent JJ to retrieve Garcia and Emily. He didn't want to give her this news in her office. He didn't want Garcia's office to be tainted with this horrible memory. He sat down and then stood again. He knew this was going to be difficult for Garcia to come to terms with. 

Even though Kevin may have had something to do with Morgan and Reid's disappearance, it would still hurt her. Garcia and Lynch were together for a few years and no matter how sick he was she would always have a soft spot for him. That's just how she was.

Hotch heard footsteps coming down the hall, which broke him from his thoughts. He watched as they entered.

"Everyone please have a seat." He said although he was more concerned about Garcia than anyone else.

He cleared his throat and avoided eye contact with everyone. "A little while ago I received a call. Kevin Lynch was killed in a car crash. Witnesses say someone tried to run him off the road and he swerved into another car, going about 80. Both drivers were killed on impact." Hotch said it as quickly as he could, wanting to get it over with.

Garcia stared at him with a look of utter horror on her face. JJ and Emily were at her side immediately. JJ took one of her hands and Emily took the other. They waited for her to say something.

"No," She shook her head, "He was just here a few hours ago. It can't be true."

"I'm afraid it is. I have a few phone calls to make. If you need anything I'll be in my office." Hotch knew she was going to break down and he didn't want to be there to see it.

"I have a few things to take care of as well." Rossi said standing up. He walked over to Garcia. He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll check on you later kitten." He stood up straight and walked out of the room, leaving them alone.

"What can we do PG?" Emily asked, squeezing her friend's hand.

Garcia opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She couldn't believe this was really happening. No matter what Kevin had done he hadn't deserved what he'd gotten. There was a point where she truly had loved Kevin and now he was gone. She would never get to hear his side because he was...she couldn't even think the word.

"Pen please say something." JJ begged, concerned.

Garcia opened her mouth again, but as soon as she tried to speak she began to sob. The sobs were so awful that JJ and Emily could feel their own hearts breaking for her.

"I'm so sorry PG." Emily said, almost crying herself.

"Let it all out pen, It's okay." The two girls looked at each other and pulled their friend into a tight hug.

Garcia couldn't push it back any longer. All the emotions that she'd been trying to hold in since she first found out her boy genius and her chocolate Adonis were taken came pouring out of her. Her shoulders heaved as she wept for her friends and for the only man loved romantically.

Her friends squeezed her tighter, letting her cry on their shoulders.

OOOOOO

Even from his office Hotch could hear the gut wrenching cries that could only be coming from their technical analyst. He tried to think of something he could do to help. His mind wandered back to when he'd lost Hayley.

Penelope Garcia had done everything she could possibly think of to let him know that she was there. She'd sent him flowers, called randomly just to see how he was doing, babysat Jack one night when Hotch had needed some time alone and made him tea. Tea... Hotch got up and went to the kitchen. He looked around in the cabinets until he found the kind she liked.

OOOOOO

JJ felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. She was surprised to see Hotch standing there with a mug.

"Penelope," he said quietly, using her first name since this was more personal than usual. "I brought you some tea." He said a little awkwardly.

She pulled back from her friends and looked at him. It was then that he could see it. She had the same look in her eyes as he had when he lost Hayley.

"Thank you." She whispered. Even in that whisper he could hear how broken she was and it tugged at his own heart a little.

"You're not alone, you have us and you always will. Don't forget that." Hotch said as he handed her the tea.

Penelope Garcia, took the cup and took a tiny sip. Suddenly she put the cup back on the table and threw her arms around her boss.

"Thank you sir." She didn't ask how he knew what her favorite kind was, he was a profiler...of course he knew.

Hotch was a little surprised, but he gingerly rested a hand on her back, trying to provide some sort of comfort. "Anytime, that's what family is for." He said, "I understand if you need some time-" he started to say.

"Not until I have my friends back." She said, pulling away and looking at him, determined.

"Honey you're exhausted. You're no help to anyone like this." JJ said, running her hand gently through her friend's hair.

"At least get a few hours sleep here." Emily added.

Penelope wearily looked at her friends, knowing she wasn't going to win this one. "Okay." She sighed, giving in. "Two hours, that's it." She said, giving them the I'm serious look.

"We'll take it." JJ said, putting an arm around her friend. Penelope picked up her tea and JJ led her down the hall to the bunker. Emily stayed behind, she would go check on her later.

Hotch glanced to his right and noticed the box of albums sitting there.

"I need you to start going through these, see what you can get out of it."

"On it." Emily said nodding and sitting down to get started.

OOOOOOOOO

Spencer Reid

Reid had thought about giving up more times than he could count, but he hadn't stopped. He kept going for hours and hours. Finally, just when he thought he really couldn't go on anymore, he hit something solid. He pushed at it again and felt something shift. Oh my god, he'd made it.

He pushed at the wall as hard as he could and the piece gave way. He crawled out of the hole and collapsed into the dark empty room. This time he was in a real basement, in a real home, with a real family. He'd done it, he was finally free.

He hadn't eaten in nearly 28 hours and it had taken most of his energy to make it through the the tunnel. He forced his way to his hands and knees and crawled up the basement steps. He reached up and opened the door. The lights were on and he could hear someone walking around. 

"Hello?" He called out. He couldn't move anymore, every muscle in his body screamed at him not to. He heard footsteps coming towards him and a girl who looked about 10 stood over him.

"Who are you?" She asked. She didn't look scared of him at all.

"My name is Dr. Spencer Reid. I'm with the FBI. I need you to get me a phone, can you do that?" He asked forcing himself to sit up a little.

"Woah an FBI agent! Do you fight bad guys?" Her eyes went wide with excitement.

"Yes I do actually, that's why I need the phone. I need the other police to help me fight the bad guys. Think you can get me a phone?"

"Yup!" She raced off and was back seconds later with her house phone.

"What's your name?" He asked her as she handed him the phone.

"My name is Madison Jones."

"Madison, where are your parents?" He asked as he dialed 9-1-1.

"They went to the store, just for a few minutes."

"When I'm done on the phone, I need you to call them and tell them you're okay." He didn't want her parents to think she was hurt when the cops showed up.

"Got it Mr. Spencer!" She said smiling at him.

"9-1-1 what's your emergency?" The operator asked in a monotone voice.

"My name is Reid, I'm with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. I was kidnapped yesterday morning, please send help."


	10. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmmmm just read it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 10! #ILoveMyReaders   
> Please comment :)

Spencer Reid

Reid answered as many questions as he could while on the phone, but he was having trouble concentrating and there were many questions he simply didn't know the answers to. He ended up putting it on speaker so Madison could help him out.

For example the question, "what's the address?" was a question only Madison could answer.

"8 Rosencrest Drive." She said confidently.

After a few more questions, Reid interrupted the operator. "I know this is procedure, but she or somebody else needs to call her parents. I don't want them to freak out when they come home to a bunch of cops invading their home."

"I'll get someone on that right away." The operator said. There's was a long silence on the other end and then she was back. "Okay, they're being notified as we speak. Emergency services should be there in 4 minutes, please stay on the line until they arrive."

Reid was having trouble staying conscious. He could hear Madison talking to the lady on the other end.

"I think he's sleepy, yes I can do that." She was saying, he felt her kneeling beside him. She tapped his shoulder lightly. "Mr. Spencer can you hear me? It's not bedtime yet, you can't sleep."

"Can hear you." He replied quietly. He felt so weak that every movement made him feel physically ill. He managed to roll onto his side and threw up.

"I don't think he feels too good." Reid could only hear Madison's side of the conversation now. "No, he's on his side. I'm good at playing doctor! I can help!" He felt Madison get up and as quick as she was gone, she was back again. She wasn't empty handed however.

Reid felt something soft under his head and realized she'd put a pillow under it and covered him with a blanket.

"Yes I'm still here. I'm taking good care of him." Reid felt little hands on his forehead. "Yeah his head is very warm. Yes I hear the sirens. They're very close now."

"Here drink this." She lifted his head a tiny bit and tipped some water into his mouth, just a little bit. Reid happily obliged. He didn't realize how dehydrated he was. He drank half the bottle and she let his head back down on the pillow.

"Okay they're here now, I can hear them. Thank you. Bye Mrs. Emergency lady." Madison hung up

"Don't leave me alone." Reid mumbled. He wasn't talking to Madison or at least he hadn't meant to. He was talking to his team, his family. But it wasn't his team who responded.

"I won't leave you alone Mr. Spencer. A Good doctor never leaves her patient."

Reid snapped out of it a little, enough to comprehend what she'd said. The way she'd said that and the way she was taking care of him made him wonder. "Madison, are your parents doctors?" He asked.

"My dad is, he told me that." He felt a little hand slip into his.

"You're a good doctor, thank you Madison." He listened to her, hoping if he focused on her he could stay conscious. He couldn't focus anymore, everything was slipping away, just as the doors opened Reid slipped into unconsciousness.

OOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: If you haven't noticed by now, when it comes to anger Thomas has basically no control over what he does. Just remember that in this chapter.

Unsub

Thomas paced back and forth, he was so angry he could barely think. Fucking useless, that's what you are. His fathers words rang through his head. He gripped his hair in his hands and screamed in frustration.

Morgan had been shocked awake when he heard the shot. He panicked looking for Reid for a second before remembering that Reid wasn't here. He wondered if Reid had made it. He hoped for his sake and Reid's that he had. He could hear footsteps above him. They were moving in the same pattern as if someone was pacing. Something had set the unsub off. This could be very good or very bad for him.

Thomas stopped pacing, all he saw was red. His vision was blurry and he was so angry he was shaking, not just his hands like usual, it was his whole body. He had to finish this before Liam could reach the cops. He had to take care of the current threat. He stomped to the cellar door and swung it open, climbing down.

Morgan had heard him coming and went back to being "asleep."

"What the hell!? Where the fuck is the scrawny one?!" The unsub screamed at him.

In that moment Morgan knew exactly what he needed to do. "What, what are you talking about, he was just here?" He acted groggy and confused.

"Don't play dumb with me, do you think I'm that stupid?" The unsub glared at him.

"Before, when I was still half awake your brother came down here. I didn't know what they were saying, but I think he might have had something to do with it. Bastard left me behind!" Morgan confused look turned to one of pure anger.

"He left me here to die! He can't have gotten far on foot! Maybe we can still get him!" Morgan was practically yelling at the same volume as the unsub.

"No, you stay here!" The unsub was already climbing out of the basement. He did just what Morgan had banked on him doing. He took off, leaving the door unlocked and wide open. He didn't care where he was going as long as it was far away from here.


	11. One Agent Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens...you'll find out if you read it xD

An hour later Emily entered Hotch's office after having looked through all the albums. There were things in there she wished she could unsee.

There were candid shots of Garcia at the coffee shop, making dinner, sleeping, showering and worst of all there were pictures of her and Kevin having sex. Kevin must have paid someone to take them because there was no way he could have done that himself.

"Hotch, I finished going through all of the albums. They're pretty disturbing. There's no way she knew those were taken." Emily said quickly.

Hotch was about to respond when his phone rang. He held up a finger, motioning for Emily to wait. She nodded and stood there, waiting.

"Hotchner." She watched as his face changed.

"Where?" He listened some more.

"Was there anybody with him? There were two missing." Hotch listened some more and Emily's eyes widened.

"Thank you." Hotch hung up and turned around. "They found Reid, Morgan's not with him. He's in the hospital downtown. I'll get David, you get the others." Hotch half sprinted out of the room, Emily followed, walking past him towards the bunker.

"JJ." Emily said, not wasting anytime. "They found Reid, he's alive. Morgan's not with him. Get her up, were leaving in 5." Emily exited, walking quickly back to her desk to grab her jacket.

OOOOO

JJ stared after Emily for half a second, taking in what she'd said. Reid was alive, a sense of relief fell over her. She tried not to think about what this could mean for Morgan.

She looked over at Penelope who was finally sleeping. It'd taken a half an hour to get her to actually go to sleep. JJ had spent that half hour trying to console her until she'd finally cried herself to sleep.

JJ sighed and got up from the chair, knowing if she didn't wake her up for this, her friend might never forgive her. JJ sat down next to Penelope's sleeping form and stroked her hair. "Pen, you've gotta get up now." JJ said gently.

Penelope groaned, "Five more minutes."

Honey they found Reid, he's alive." As soon as she heard that, Penelope's eyes shot open and she sat up.

"What, where?! Is he okay, is Morgan with him-"

JJ cut her off, shaking her head. "He's in the hospital, Morgan's not with him." JJ stopped talking when she saw the look on her friend's face.

"It doesn't mean anything Pen. Morgan wouldn't give up without a fight. Come on let's go see Reid."

JJ put an arm around Penelope's waist, helping her stand. She seemed a little out of it, but given everything that had happened JJ wasn't surprised. In fact she'd expected Penelope would need more help than she actually did.

Penelope started heading for the door as soon as she was standing. She'd taken JJ's hand and was practically pulling her along behind her.

OOOOOOO

They all took one car. Normally they would have taken two, but given the circumstances, none of them really wanted to split up.

The three girls sat In the back while Hotch drove and Rossi sat shotgun. They drove most of the way in silence, which was also highly unusual.

JJ sat in the middle between Emily and Penelope. Every so often she glanced over at one of her friends.

About halfway through the fifteen minute drive, JJ noticed Penelope's shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. She reached over and took her hand.

"We have to be strong for them. We have to believe that he's okay. We've got Reid back." JJ lifted her other hand, turning a little in her seat to wipe away a tear that lingered Penelope's cheek.

Penelope nodded. JJ was right, she had to stay strong. Reid was alive and she had to focus on that. She had to focus on the good. "We've got Reid." She said agreeing. She managed a small smile.

"There's the Penelope Garcia that I'm looking for." JJ said, happy to see a little more light In the tech analyst's eyes. JJ wrapped an arm around her shoulders and Penelope rested her head against JJ's. Emily had been listening. Once they were quiet, she reached over and took JJ's free hand without looking at her. They stayed like that for the rest of the drive.

OOOOOO

Hotch got out first and the rest of the team followed quickly. "We're here to see Dr. Spencer Reid." He held up his badge and the lady at the desk stood up right away and went to go get his nurse who was apparently right down the hall. She came back a minute later with an older looking woman.

"And you are?" She asked them.

Hotch held up his badge again. "We're his team."

"Right, yes. He's not conscious yet, he's extremely dehydrated and has a very high fever. He also has a severe concussion and quite a few cuts and bruises. We've got him on an IV and lots of antibiotics. He needs to rest, but you can see him in a few hours." She said, leading them to the waiting room.

"But he's otherwise okay?" Hotch questioned.

"Yes, he should be fully recovered in 2-3 weeks. The only thing we are worried about is his concussion, but we are monitoring it closely. He's lucky that little girl was there. That little bit of water she gave him might have just saved his life."

"Wait, what little girl?" Hotch stopped walking and so did his team.

"The one who's house he ended up in. She watched over him and talked to the 9-1-1 operator. She's here actually. She's refusing to leave, she made her parents take her here. She's quite a determined child." The nurse turned and smiled at them.

"May we speak with her?" Emily spoke up from behind Hotch.

The nurse nodded, "she's in the waiting room, right this way." She said.

The team followed, a little bit intrigued by this new information. A little girl had saved Reid's life? The team couldn't wait to meet her.

OOOOOOOOO

Derek Morgan

Morgan waited exactly two minutes before heading for the ladder. He climbed out and ran straight for the door. He froze when for half a second when he realized he wasn't in a neighborhood. There were no neighbors, only miles and miles of woods. 

This wasn't what he had been expecting, but he had to get out and if the woods were his only escape, then so be it.

Looks like I'd better get moving then, he thought to himself before running down the steps of the porch and heading for the woods.


	12. I Didn't Leave You Alone

"This is her." The nurse said, gesturing to a young girl with long brown hair. She was sitting next to a man and a woman who Hotch assumed were her parents.

Hotch stepped aside, letting JJ take the lead on this. She would be a lot less intimidating than he would to a little girl.

JJ stepped forward. "Hi, my name is Jennifer, I work with Spencer. He's a really good friend of mine." The woman looked up and smiled at her.

"Oh hi, I'm Amelia Jones, this is my husband Chris and this is our daughter, Madison." She held out her hand and JJ took it, shaking it lightly before releasing it.

"Is it okay if we speak with Madison?" JJ asked. She always made sure to address the parents first.

"Of course, she is very fond of ummm..." She trailed of and Madison took that as her chance to speak up.

"Mr. Spencer. He was my first real patient!" She said excitedly. "I want to be a doctor like my dad when I grow up."

JJ chuckled a little when she heard her say "Mr. Spencer" and so did some of the team.

"Would you be okay with sitting over there and talking in private?" She asked kneeling in front of Madison.

"Yes Miss Jennifer." Madison nodded, standing up and slipping her hand into JJ's.

JJ glanced up at the parents who both nodded.

She led Madison to a chair far enough away where Madison would feel totally comfortable, not that she wasn't already.

"I have some questions for you Madison, if there are any you don't want to answer, you don't have to. Okay?" JJ asked, still holding her hand.

"Okay, I'm ready." Madison said, nodding eagerly.

"Madison, how did you meet Spencer?" She asked.

"When he crawled out of my basement. He told me he was an FBI agent...wait..." All of the sudden her excitement seemed to rise.

Her eyes lit up when she spoke, "So does that mean you're an FBI agent too?" She asked.

"Yes I am, all of us are." She gestured towards her team who were all standing around while Hotch spoke to the parents.

"That's so cool! Can I see your badge?" Madison was practically jumping out of her chair.

JJ laughed and pulled it out, letting the girl hold onto it. "You can hold it while I ask you these questions."

Madison looked it over and nodded eagerly.

"Okay Madison, when you first met Spencer, did he say anything, ask for anything?"

Madison thought for a moment. "He wanted a phone."

JJ got out her little notepad she sometimes used to remember things and wrote down the words, basement and phone.

"Very good, and how did he seem. Did he say he was sick?"

"He was very tired and his head was very hot. He threw up too. He told me he needed to fight the bad guys and that's why he needed the phone, he also said..." Madison scrunched up her nose as if she was thinking very hard, "to call my parents, but the 9-1-1 lady did that. I talked to her a lot."

"What did you talk to her about, just tell me whatever you can remember sweetie." JJ patted the little girl's hand.

"I told her where I lived, my name, then we talked about . I got him some water and made him drink it. I put a pillow under his head. The lady asked me if he was on his side or his back. Then started to fall asleep. I told him it wasn't bedtime yet. Then he said...he said..." She scrunched up her nose again, closing her eyes.

"Aha! Then he wanted to know if my parents were doctors. I said my dad was and he told me I was a good doctor..." She paused again. "Is Mr. Spencer going to be okay? I want him to be okay. He's my friend." She said.

JJ took some notes and put her notepad away. "They said he's going to be okay." She nodded, confirming.

"Okay, but I'm not leaving. A good doctor never leaves her patients." Madison said with a huge smile.

JJ smiled, "You don't have to leave sweetie."

"Good because he doesn't want to be alone. He told me that because I'm his friend. I never leave my friends when they need me."

"That's very good Madison. I'm sure Spencer will appreciate that."

"I want to see him." Madison said, frowning a little.

"Soon honey. We're all done here, would you like the meet the rest of Spencer's friends?" JJ asked as Madison handed her back her badge.

"Yes!" Madison grinned and JJ led her back to the rest of the team.

OOOOOOOO

It was almost midnight when a doctor finally came out to let us know he was awake.

Emily and JJ were chatting quietly while Madison slept between them. Penelope was drinking coffee, forcing herself to stay awake despite the rest of the team's wishes. Hotch and Rossi were fast asleep in two chairs across the room.

Penelope took the task of waking the two men, while JJ and Emily woke Madison.

Madison's parents had gone home about a half an hour earlier after some convincing from the team. They were coming back in about 7 hours.

Once everyone was awake, the doctor spoke again. "He's awake, but he's on a lot of meds so he may be a bit out of it, but you may all see him now."

"Thank you doctor." Emily said as she walked past him.

They all filed into his room. Penelope took the chair on his left and Madison took it upon herself to climb right up on her lap. Reid's face was pale and he had cuts all over his arms and a ton of bruises.

"Hey Reid, how are you feeling?" Penelope reached out and lightly took his hand.

"Been better." Reid answered. "Morgan?" He questioned.

"No, not yet, we need your help Spence." JJ said from his other side.

"Mr. Spencer," Madison interrupted. "I didn't leave you alone."

"Madison?" Reid forced his eyes open to look at her.

"Yup!" She smiled and carefully climbed from Penelope's lap to his bed. Nobody moved to stop her, she was being careful enough.

"Thank you Madison." Reid felt a his heart ache for this little girl who was too sweet for a world full of so much pain. She deserved to be home with her parents, but instead she was here.

"I'm your friend, it's what friends do." Madison carefully leaned down and kissed his cheek.

Everyone in the room was watching, some of them even shed a few tears, Reid included. It was one of the sweetest moments.

"Reid, we need to know how you got out." Hotch said stepping forward. Time was running out for Morgan.

"The tunnel. Crawled for miles." Reid mumbled.

"In the basement?" Rossi questioned.

"Yes, seven miles. Crawled seven miles, Seven hours and twenty two minutes."

"Wow." Penelope's eyes went wide.

"You crawled seven miles, oh my brave boy." She squeezed his hand, more tears falling down her face.

"That's amazing Reid." Hotch agreed.

"Where exactly is this tunnel? Describe it as best you can." Rossi said.

Reid did his best to describe it despite the fog that had settled over him.

"How are we going to get Morgan?" Penelope asked.

"We need to send someone with a cell phone through the tunnel so Garcia can track it." Hotch said. "Any volunteers?" He turned towards his team. He wished he could do it, but from the way Reid had described the tunnels, he wouldn't fit. His shoulders were too broad.

"I'll go." Emily said, stepping forward determinedly. She owed the team so much, she was happy to do this for them, for Morgan. She felt like she owed it to him especially.


	13. See You On The Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens.....comment and let me know if you like it :)

"Emily, are you sure you want to do this?" Hotch asked as they drove to the Jones residence. "You don't have to, you don't owe us anything."

"I owe you my life. If you guys hadn't come after me when Doyle...I want to do this. I'm doing this for Morgan. Besides, Reid did this. If Reid can do this and survive while sick and injured, I can definitely do this." Hotch nodded, accepting this answer.

JJ and Rossi were following behind them in another car while Penelope stayed behind with Reid and Madison, who still refused to leave his side.

OOOOOO

"A guy is here to see you, said his name is Michael Anderson." The nurse informed Penelope, as she entered the room to check on Reid.

"Oh, good yeah." She said, glancing across the room at Madison, who was sound asleep in the other chair, before standing. "Will you stay for a moment. I have to go get my laptop, I'll-" the nurse smiled and cut her off.

"Of course, go ahead, I don't mind."

"Thank you so much." She said gratefully, and headed down the hall to retrieve her things.

OOOOOOOO

"Here you go, here's everything you requested Garcia." He said, handing her the laptop bag and her purse.

"Thank you Anderson." She gave him a small smile, before heading back to the room with her stuff.

She went back to her chair and thanked the nurse again for staying.

Once the nurse had left she opened her laptop, powering it up.

She pulled her phone out of her purse, which she had left in her office when they'd come to the hospital. 'Ready when you are my loves.' She sent the text to Emily's phone since she knew she would be with Hotch.

OOOOOOO

Hotch entered the house first, Emily right on his heels with JJ and Rossi not too far behind. They didn't waste any time, walking directly to the basement.

The team stood around the hole, kind of amazed as to how small it actually was. It would be tight, but Emily would fit just fine.

The team didn't have much time to prepare Emily, they knew that she needed to go as soon as possible.

"Take care of yourself Em, don't push it too much." JJ said, giving her friend a hug.

"If you feel yourself straining, slow down for a few minutes. Don't overwork yourself." Hotch chimed in.

Rossi tossed her a Gatorade and she caught it easily. "Thanks Rossi." Emily said, shoving it in her pocket and zipping it up.

"Don't forget your needs too, it won't help anyone if you get too dehydrated and pass out." Rossi said.

"You ready Em?" JJ asked, reaching out and giving her shoulder a squeeze.

Emily check the phone for the third time in the last five minutes, making sure it was on. "I'm ready. Don't worry guys, I'm going to be fine. See you on the other side." Emily said, getting down on her hands and knees.

"We'll be there." Hotch promised.

"Garcia has the tracker going." JJ said, "Be careful." Emily nodded and began her long crawl towards saving Morgan.

OOOOOOO

Penelope drank her fourth cup of coffee faster than she'd meant to. It was getting harder to stay awake, after the 34 hour mark. As soon as this was over and Morgan was safe she was going to sleep for two days straight. She stared at the screen, Emily was moving at a decent pace of two point five miles per hour which for crawling that was incredibly fast.

Pace yourself Em, Penelope thought nervously, knowing her friend was going to wear herself out if she kept going at the pace that she was.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, her pace slowed to exactly two miles per hour. The only thing keeping Penelope awake right now was knowing that her friend was crawling threw a tunnel alone.

Penelope remembered the head set Emily was wearing. She'd made sure to give it to her before the rest of the team left the hospital.

She activated it and spoke, "how you holding up there Em?"

Emily's dot on the screen slowed even more so that she could speak. "I'm okay PG, how long do I have to go?"

"I can't say for sure, but the estimate is about seven hours. I'll keep checking in with you once every hour. Stay strong Em, you can do this."

"Thanks PG, I love you."

Penelope's eyes filled with tears when she heard that. It'd been awhile since she'd heard that from Emily. Thinking about it brought her back to a very dark time. Back when Emily had gone after Doyle alone, back before she'd left the team. Penelope shook her head, she didn't want to think about that anymore.

"I love you too Em, Garcia out." She turned off the headset and wiped at her eyes. Crying would only make her even more exhausted.

OOOOOOOO

Emily had been crawling at a steady pace of two point two miles per hour for the past hour. She stopped when PG's voice popped into her ear through the headset, reminding her to drink. She sighed, but did as requested. She pulled out the Gatorade, taking a few big sips.

"How long?" Emily asked. It felt like she'd been in there for days.

"You've got about four more hours. You can do this Em, Garcia out."

Emily put away her Gatorade and pushed on.

OOOOO

Hotch, JJ and Rossi were parked three miles from the Jones residence, all in one car, again. Every mile that Emily traveled, they would drive as well. They waited for Penelope to give them the directions the the next point. JJ's cell rang and she put it on speaker. "Okay darlings, get ready to move."

OOOOOOO

By the five hour mark, Emily was struggling. She'd moved down to a pace of one point eight and stayed there for a good half hour. Every so often Garcia would pop back in with some encouragement.

Emily's arms and legs felt like rubber and she was almost out of Gatorade.

"An hour and thirty five minutes if you can keep up that pace Em. You're almost there and the team is right there with you." Emily like the sound of that. She pushed even faster. She was close now. She'd made it this far and she knew she could make it the rest of the way. 

Her mind floated back to Reid. She didn't know how he'd managed to do this. Her heart suddenly swelled with pride. He was tough, tougher than any of the team had ever given him credit for. She made a mental note to tell him that if she ever got out of here.

OOOOOOOO

Morgan thought about running straight, but knew that was what the unsub would expect him to do, so as soon as he was in the woods, he veered right and ran as fast as he could. It was difficult with the injuries he had, but he pushed on. 

He thought of his team. His babygirl was the first one who popped into his head. He knew she'd want him to be strong. She was his best friend, his God given solace and she would be heartbroken if he gave up.

He thought of JJ, Hotch, Rossi, and Reid. Reid had to have made it. He hadn't heard otherwise so he chose to believe that Reid was safe. He ran faster and harder than he ever had before.

He made it three miles before collapsing. His legs had given out and he couldn't move anymore. I just need to rest and then I can keep going.

The sky was beginning to grow light again, just as his world was going dark. He drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.


	14. Going Into Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily makes it through to the other side, but what will she find there?

The team was fading fast, they'd all been up for over 36 hours and they knew they wouldn't be sleeping until they'd found Morgan.

"Emily love, how are you holding up?" Penelope asked, releasing a huge yawn.

"Exhausted, but okay, how much further?"

"Forty minutes, you're so close. In about ten minutes I should be able the track the address of the house, depends on how many there are within range. Right now there's four. I just need to narrow it down a little more. Don't forget to wait Em. Hotch, JJ and Rossi need to clear the home before you leave that tunnel." Penelope reminded her friend.

"Yeah yeah I got it, thanks PG." Emily pushed herself to go even faster, she managed to reach a pace of two point four, and keep that pace for awhile.

She was about twenty-five minutes away when she heard Penelope's voice in her ear. She was talking to both Emily and the rest of the team.

"I got it. It's the only house within a two mile radius. The rest of the buildings nearby are all abandoned. But this one was inhabited by a Thomas O'hare, however it's not the unsub, but his father who holds ownership of the home."

"I thought you said his father was dead...?" JJ questioned.

"That he is sweetcheeks. The house has been supposedly abandoned for twenty years. It was so disgusting that nobody wanted to go out there and fix it up so everyone just assumed it was empty." Penelope informed them. 

Emily listened to Penelope giving the team directions and pushed on faster. Twenty minutes, twenty minutes, twenty minutes she repeated in her head.

"Okay now just go straight...You're five minutes out!" Hotch sped up going as fast as he could.

OOOOO

Morgan wasn't out for long. About fifteen minutes after he'd collapsed, he opened his eyes. He stood on wobbly legs and started moving slowly. He was closer to the road than he had thought. He managed to make it the quarter mile to the road and leaned heavily against a tree by the side. He could see headlights coming down the road and waved an arm frantically.

OOOOOOO

Hotch was going so fast that at first he'd driven right past.

"Hotch wait, go back. I saw something back there." Rossi exclaimed almost frantic. He was sure he'd seen someone.

Hotch slammed on the breaks and made a quick U-turn, driving slowly this time. About a minute later they saw him. There he was, Derek Morgan. He looked rough, but it was him.

JJ dialed Penelope straight away. Hotch pulled over and they all jumped out of the car.

"We've got him, he looks...send an ambulance."

"I'm sending an army." She responded, immediately hanging up and sending for help. She sent the 9-1-1 operator the exact coordinates.

Hotch reached Morgan's side in seconds.

Morgan thought he was hallucinating at first.

"No freakin way, you're not real."

"Morgan, it's me, Aaron Hotchner. You're okay now, we're going to get you to a hospital." Morgan seemed to snap out of it a little. His knees buckled. Hotch and JJ were at his side within seconds.

"Reid?" Morgan questioned, seeming to believe them now.

"He's okay, he made it. He's in the hospital." Hotch held onto Morgan tightly, nodding at JJ that she could go.

"You and Rossi go to the house." Someone had to be there to let Emily know it was safe to come out and considering she'd been crawling for nearly eight hours, she would probably need some assistance and medical attention as well.

"The unsub isn't there Hotch." Morgan managed to say.

"Don't worry, we'll find him." He could already hear sirens in the distance.

OOOOOOO

Even in the darkness, Emily could see the exit, it was covered, but she could push it out easily when she needed to. She reached the exit and collapsed onto her stomach, waiting for the okay to climb out. Emily had never been more exhausted in her life.

"Em, JJ and Rossi should be there in one minute, are you okay?"

"I'm okay PG." Emily reassured her.

Penelope could hear the pure exhaustion in her friend's voice. "I'm so proud of you Em. You did it, they found him."

Emily breathed out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god. What about Thomas?"

"No sign of him anywhere yet I'm afraid."

"PG don't leave me. Keep talking to me until they get here." Emily had been alone in her life too many times and didn't want to feel that way ever again.

"I'm not going anywhere Em. They'll be there any second. I'll be right here until you're out and safe." Penelope said softly, her eyes closed, relief flooding through her as she began to comprehend the fact that her team was okay.

OOOOOOOO

"Okay, I'll go the basement and retrieve Emily, you clear the first and second floors." JJ said, holding her fun straight out in front of her and moving slowly. She moved around every door way carefully. "Kitchen is clear." She called just loud enough for Rossi to hear.

JJ found the trap door wide open and carefully went down the steep steps. It was almost like a ladder, but with thicker rails. "Emily!" She called out, unsure where to look.

Emily's head popped up and she immediately started pushing at the wall with her shoulder. "Here JJ!" Emily called as loudly as she could manage.

JJ heard her friend and noticed the piece of wall trying to wiggle it's way free. She ran over and helped pry out the wall. It fell to the floor and Emily dragged herself out. She managed to use the rest of the wall to push herself to a standing position.

JJ pulled her friend into a tight hug. "Emily, I am so proud of you. You were amazing." Emily clung to her friend for support.

"Thanks JJ," Emily mumbled, barely able to get the words out.

Penelope was still there, just listening.

"PG, thank you for staying."

"No need to thank me my love. Ambulance is on its way." Penelope hung up, knowing Emily was in good hands now.

"JJ we've got a body!" Rossi shouted from two floors up. JJ slid an arm around her friend's waist and helped her very slowly up the stairs. Eventually they made it to the filthy looking couch. Emily made a face, but didn't protest when JJ set her down. "I'll be right back Em." She said and ran up the stairs to where Rossi was waiting.

OOOOOO

"Must be one of the brothers." Rossi said. This gave them so much new information on Thomas O'hare. He was completely out of control, enough so that he would kill his own brother.

They headed back down the stairs faster than they would with any normal case, not wanting to leave Emily by herself.

OOOOOO

JJ, Rossi and Emily sat on the porch outside the ugly yellow house and waited. JJ kept her arms wrapped protectively around her friend. They heard sirens and then saw the lights.

OOOOOO

Thomas O'hare was furious. He knew now that he had been tricked. He heard sirens and ran further and further. He knew exactly where he could hide. He ran and ran and ran, not stopping for anything.

He made a vow to himself that he would get agent Morgan, but for now he needed to hide. If he was found, his whole plan was ruined for good. His first target when he could hunt again however would be Liam. His pussy of a brother. He didn't even deserve to be called brother. Thomas would get him, no matter what it took.


	15. Not Now

JJ rode back to the hospital with Emily.  
Rossi drove the SUV, following them and Hotch rode with Morgan.

"Reid's okay?" Morgan questioned for the fourth time since they'd entered the ambulance.

"He's just fine Morgan, you need to lay down and relax." Hotch said, as the paramedics pushed him back down.

"Hotch, three unsubs." Morgan managed to spit out.

"Actually we think there were four." Hotch said cautiously.

"But, we only saw-" Hotch interrupted quickly.

"You wouldn't have seen the fourth one. He would've been terrified to show himself to you. That's just the kind of man, Kevin Lynch was."

"Kevin Lynch!?" The paramedics had to restrain Morgan. "What the hell!?" Morgan struggled a minute before something seemed to click. "Wait Hotch, what do you mean the kind of man he WAS?"

"Kevin Lynch is dead, killed in a car collision."

Morgan froze and his mind went straight to his babygirl, his best friend, he knew how much she'd loved him. No matter what he did, she still loved him in some way.

"Penelope." Was the only thing he could manage to say.

"She's okay, she's with Reid and Madison. I'm actually going to send her to Emily."

"Madison?" Morgan questioned.

"Long story, we'll discuss it later. You need to rest so that you can heal." Hotch said quickly.

Morgan didn't protest, he just let his eyes close, knowing he would see his best friend and the rest of the team really soon.

OOOO

Madison was now awake and watching over Reid as if he was actually her patient even though he was sound asleep.

Penelope waited anxiously for her friends to return. Emily was safe, Reid was safe and Derek was safe. Although she didn't know Derek's condition she knew he was alive and right now that's all that mattered.

"Are you hungry sweetheart?" Garcia asked, standing and walking over to the little girl.

"Do they have hotdogs here?" Madison asked, not breaking her gaze away from Reid.

"I'll go look, stay here Madison and don't let anyone in the room unless it's his nurse or doctor." Penelope leaned down and planted a small kiss on the top of her head.

Penelope rushed down to the cafeteria. She got a hot dog for Madison,a veggie burger for herself and a jello just in case. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. Although she didn't know if she could even hold it down. She still felt nauseous and she knew that wouldn't subside until she could see with her own eyes that her teammates were alive.

She brought the food back up to the room. Madison was still right where she'd left her, but Reid was now awake. She was glad she'd grabbed that jello just in case.

Penelope's phone rang just as she was handing the hot dog to Madison.

"Jello for you my boy genius." She said, placing it on the tray in front of him before picking up her phone.

"Garcia, JJ and Emily are almost to the hospital, I'm here with Morgan, but they've taken him in and he isn't allowed visitors yet. I need you to stay with Emily. Madison's parents are on their way and they're going to watch over her and Reid. Emily only needs to be monitored for a couple of hours, but Rossi, JJ and I need to go back and catch that son of a bitch. Will you be alright Penelope?" Hotch asked, a little worried about his tech analyst.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be okay." She let out a huge yawn.

"Just a few more hours, then we can all get some sleep." Hotch promised.

"According to JJ they've just arrived." Hotch said.

"Okay," Garcia paused, "and sir, how's my Derek doing?"

"He's stable, a little out of it, but the doctors don't really know the extent of his injuries just yet, but they promised to keep us updated."

Penelope turned to Reid who was watching her while he talked to Madison.

"Can you watch her?" She mouthed to Reid. Reid nodded and mouthed back, "go."

Penelope grabbed her laptop bag and hurried quickly down the hall to the information desk.

"Emily Prentiss, is she in yet?" She asked, a little out of breath from walking so fast.

The receptionist typed something into her computer and nodded. She just arrived, room 504, one floor down."

OOOOOO

Penelope stood outside the door for a second before taking a deep breath and knocking. Seconds later she was engulfed into a huge hug.

JJ hugged her friend tightly. Between Emily and Penelope she'd never seen two more exhausted looking people in her entire life.

"How are you holding up Pen?" She asked, not letting go.

"I'm just ready for this to be over. I want him caught and I want to know that my boys are going to be okay. They're okay physically as far as we know, but they were gone nearly thirty hours, we don't know what happened to them." Penelope whispered, her voice breaking a little at that last part.

JJ nodded and pulled back a little, examining her friend.

"And what about Kevin, how are you-" Penelope cut her off.

"Please not now JJ, I can't talk about this now. How's Emily?" She looked over at the bed where Emily was laying with her eyes closed.

"She crawled through a tunnel for nearly eight hours, so she's a little exhausted and dehydrated, but other than that she's okay. We WILL talk about this later, once we catch this guy you and I are going to talk." JJ squeezed her friend's shoulders, looking her in the eyes.

"I love you JJ." Penelope leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you too Pen. I know you won't sleep until you've seen Derek, but at least relax okay?" JJ wouldn't move until Penelope responded.

"I'll try Jayje." JJ nodded and released Penelope, walking around her towards the door.

Penelope stared after her JJ watching her walk down the hall. Then she walked to Emily's side.

"Em, you awake?" She asked, taking her hand.

"Mmmm yeah I'm awake." Emily forced her tired eyes open and looked up at her friend.

"Hey PG, you okay?" Penelope laughed a little. Of course Emily was worried about Penelope more than herself.

"Are YOU okay?" Penelope asked, squeezing her hand.

"Just tired, they're getting some fluids in through this IV and I ache all over, but other than that I'm great."

"Oh Em," Penelope's eyes filled with tears, "I'm so proud of you. You were amazing. You did it, you saved Derek." Penelope leaned down and hugged her friend gently.

Emily hugged her back and smiled a little. " I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would do it for any of you."

"I know that you would Em." Penelope whispered. "You're an amazing woman, one of the strongest I know."

And with that, Emily was crying too. They held onto each other as if their lives depended on it.

When they finally let go, Penelope noticed Emily was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"It's okay sweetie, you can sleep now, I'll be right here." Penelope practically collapsed Into the chair next to Emily, not releasing her hand.

"PG, if Morgan wakes up, go. Don't feel guilty for leaving." Emily mumbled.

"Thank you Em, you just sleep now." She sat, watching her friend drift off to sleep.


	16. An Emotional Reunion

Two hours later there was a quiet knock on the door and a nurse walked in. "Agent Morgan has been asking for you. He's got a mild concussion, a dislocated shoulder, a broken rib, and lots of bruises. He's going to be okay, but does still need his rest. He's extremely malnourished, but we've been feeding him and giving him fluids through an IV. He's refusing to sleep anymore until he sees you and we can't medicate him without his consent. Do you want to see him?" The nurse finished.

Penelope nodded and stood. "Yes, I do very much so."

"Alright follow me miss Garcia." Penelope walked quickly, following close behind the nurse. They walked down the hall and took a right, then another right and stopped.

"Here he is, room 457." The nurse pushed open the door and Penelope took a few steps forward. She gasped when she saw him, tears already sliding down her cheeks.

She heard the door click shut behind her and she just stood there staring at him. She couldn't speak, all she could do was stare. He had bruises all over his face and his arm was in a sling.

"Hey you." Derek Morgan said, watching her carefully. She looked like she hadn't slept in days and he noticed she was already crying. Within seconds he could see just how much she was hurting.

"They're just bruises babygirl, they'll heal." He hesitated when she didn't say anything. She looked like she could breakdown any second.

"Come here sweetness." He held out his hand to her and she shakily walked forward, sliding her hand in his.

"I'm okay, see? I'm here and I'm just fine." He leaned forward slightly, using his free hand, to wipe are some of her tears.

"Penelope, babygirl, talk to me please." He begged her.

"I-" Penelope shook her head and tried again, no sound came out.

She looked down at her hands, trying to think of something to say, but for the first time in her life, she couldn't think of a single thing. A huge lump began to form in her throat and she tried to push it down.

"Penelope, look at me." Derek said softly. He tilted her chin up, making her look at him. "You don't have to be strong for me or for Reid anymore. It's okay to let it out now, you've been through hell, we've all been through hell. Crying is not weak babygirl."

Penelope still tried to avoid his gaze and managed to successfully...for a moment anyway. "I'm fine." She forced the words out, but knew that they were useless.

"Sweetheart you are far from fine. I'm a profiler, remember?" Her eyes met his and her bottom lip started to tremble.

Derek saw it in her face that she was struggling to hold it together. He held out his arms to her, offering her comfort.

Penelope practically fell into his arms. She sat on the side of his bed and wrapped her arms around him carefully. She pressed her face against his good shoulder and let go. All of her emotions from the past few days began to explode out of her in sobs. Morgan and Reid being taken, Reid having to go through that tunnel, Emily having to go through that tunnel, and losing Kevin, the first man she'd ever loved and thought she truly had a chance with.

Derek wrapped his good arm around her, holding her tightly to him. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead and rested his other hand on her head, carefully avoiding jostling his injured shoulder.

"That's it babygirl let it all out." He could feel her shaking and her sobs growing louder. He squeezed her tighter, hoping it was helping. She'd obviously been bottling up all of this emotion. He could tell that the second she walked into the room.

It hurt him that his best friend felt was hurting and he couldn't take that pain away. All he could do was hold her and be there when she needed him. He couldn't even imagine what it would have done to her if he hadn't made it out alive. He didn't even want to think about that. He was here, he was alive and he was going to do everything he could to help her get through this.

Penelope cried until she was too exhausted to even cry anymore. She didn't move and Derek didn't let go. "I'm so glad you're okay." She croaked, her voice thick with exhaustion and tears.

Derek kissed the side of her head and whispered, "sweetheart how long has it been since you slept?" He stroked her hair lightly, waiting for a response.

"How long have you been gone?" She asked, too tired to try and do the math herself.

"Penelope, it's been forty four hours. Are you telling me that you haven't slept in forty four hours?" He asked. He didn't know how she was still functioning. The rest of the team was used to staying up for long periods of time, they'd had to do it for many cases, but Penelope usually had to take naps whenever that happened. He'd caught her napping a few times after just one all nighter.

"Been longer than I thought I guess." Penelope mumbled against his shoulder.

"You need to sleep Penelope, you should go home and-" she cut him off quickly, pulling back to glare at him.

"Derek Morgan, I am not going home. I am not leaving you here alone while that psycho is still out there."

"Woah there, easy." Derek held up his hands in surrender. "How about I get that lovely nurse of mine to bring a cot in here." It wasn't really a question. Penelope was going to get some sleep, Derek would make sure of that.

Penelope sighed, but relented. "Okay." She said, resting her head back on his shoulder while he reached for his call button.

Penelope curled up against his side and they lapsed into a comfortable silence. Derek didn't even realize that Penelope was already falling asleep.

The nurse arrived a few minutes later, rolling in a small cot and placing it next to Derek's bed.

"Looks like you may not be needing this after all." she whispered, giving him a small smile.

He glanced down to where she was looking and chuckled quietly when he realized what she meant. Penelope was clearly already fast asleep, there was no point in waking her up to move her when she was comfortable where she was.

"Do you need anything else?" The nurse asked, her voice almost a whisper.

"No thank you, we'll be fine." Derek said quietly, giving her a small smile.

The nurse left and Derek watched Penelope for a minute. She looked so peaceful and he was glad she was finally sleeping. She really needed it. They all needed it.

Derek slid his arm back around his best friend and let his eyes close. He finally relaxed and let sleep pull him under into its' depths.


	17. Green Eggs And Ham

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all have enjoyed this story so far! Please comment and let me know what you thought! :)

"Any sign of him?" JJ called out to the others.

"No!" Hotch shouted back at the same time as Rossi shouted, "He's not here!"

They'd walked the entire perimeter of the house and walked a little ways into the woods. There was no sign of Thomas or Liam anywhere.

"Spread out! I'll call for back up!" Hotch shouted, pulling out his phone to call Garcia.

There was no answer. He figured the technical analyst had probably fallen asleep. He would have to call for backup on his own, something he hadn't had to do in a long time.

OOOOOO

Thomas had taken a shortcut back to town. It'd been a long walk, but he knew he couldn't stay in those woods and wait to be caught. He had to go into hiding for a little while. He would get his revenge, but he had to be smart about it.

He stood on the sidewalk, and waved to a taxi driver. The cab slowed and opened the door, sliding easily inside. He didn't have any money, but that wasn't a problem when you had a gun. He sat in the passengers seat for a moment before pulling out his gun and pressing it to the man's side.

"Woah man, no need for that now... I'll drive you wherever you want to go." His eyes grew wide and his hands gripped the steering wheel.

"Actually if you want to live, I suggest you get out." The man nodded and fumbled for the door handle. He was out of the car in seconds and immediately started to run.

Thomas slid into the driver's seat easily and pulled the cab back out into the street. He began to drive away, already formulating a plan in his head. For now he had to get as far away from here as he could on the gas that he had. Luckily the tank was almost full. It would get him at least 125 miles away from his targets.

"You better watch your back Derek Morgan." He said out loud. "I'll be back and this time I'm going to take away someone you love, someone weak." Thomas was proud of what he'd managed to find out. He'd always been good with computers so it wasn't difficult to find out about Derek Morgan and his team.

Derek Morgan loved his team, it was obvious from the pictures he'd found. There was one person however who he had more pictures with than the others, Penelope Garcia. According to her file she was the technical analyst which meant she was probably smarter than him. He didn't like that. He never liked anyone smarter than him. That's part of why he hated his brothers and why he'd kidnapped Spencer Reid. He was too smart. Thomas did not like smart.

He smiled, it was exciting just to think about the look on Derek Morgan's face when his "babygirl" as he'd called her on Instagram, went missing. He just had to stay away long enough for them to give up and when the opportunity arose, he would come out of hiding and finally get the revenge he needed.

OOOOOO

The team had been searching for hours and still had nothing. He wasn't anywhere nearby, even the dogs couldn't find his scent anymore. It was getting dark out and they were all exhausted.

"Come on, let's head back. We'll try again tomorrow, we're all exhausted." Hotch said, approaching Rossi and JJ. They'd all been up for two days without any sleep and they knew Hotch was right.

They headed back to the SUV in silence. None of them were feeling up to conversation. They were upset that Thomas was still out there and they were dreading telling the rest of the team.

OOOOO

"JJ go check on Morgan. Rossi go see if Emily is cleared to check out, I'll check on Reid. Nobody's going home tonight, but I don't want anybody alone longer than they need to be."

JJ and Rossi nodded in agreement and went to check in on their team members.

OOOOOO

JJ knocked softly on the door and opened it peeking inside.

"Hey Morgan-" she trailed off, realizing he was asleep. She smiled at the scene before her. Penelope was fast asleep, curled up against Morgan's side. She sighed in relief, glad that her friend was finally sleeping.

She quietly closed the door and made her way back to Reid's room.

The door was open and she could hear Madison's voice. Madison was reading Green Eggs and Ham while Hotch and Reid listened attentively. JJ couldn't help smiling, it was one of the cutest things she'd ever seen. Madison showed them the pictures while she read.

She entered the room and took a seat in the only chair left.

A moment later Rossi appeared in the doorway. Her eyes met his and she mouthed "Emily?"

"Sleeping," Rossi mouthed back. JJ gave him a small smile before turning her attention back to Madison.

When the story was over everyone clapped. "Did you like the story?" She asked, her eyes were glowing with pride.

"I did, you read very well Madison." Madison giggled and took his hand.

"Why don't you read another one?" Reid suggested, giving her little hand a squeeze.

"Okay, should I read "Oh The Places You'll Go, The Little Engine That Could or The Very Hungry Caterpillar?" She asked, holding up each one as she read the titles.

"You pick, I like them all." Reid said, laughing a little.

"Okay." She picked up The Little Engine That Could and started reading.

JJ stood and walked over to Reid, giving him a kiss on the cheek and whispering, "I'm going to go get some sleep in Morgan's room. I'll be back later." Reid nodded for her to go and turned his attention back to Madison before she could notice he wasn't paying attention.

JJ made eye contact with Hotch and he just nodded.

JJ took her time getting back to Morgan's room. She peeked in on Emily on the way who was still fast asleep.

She made a quick stop at the vending machine and got a couple bags of chips for herself, Morgan and Garcia when they woke up. She then entered Morgan's room as quietly as she could.

JJ noticed the cot right away and smiled. She moved the cot a little further from her sleeping friends. She set the chips on the little table and took off her shoes. She grabbed the blanket and laid down on the cot, getting as comfortable as she could.

Just as she was closing her eyes she heard a voice.

"JJ," Morgan was looking at her, trying to be as quiet as he could he whispered, "Did you catch him?"

JJ opened her eyes all the way and shook her head slightly. "We're going to look again in the morning. Everyone's too exhausted."

Morgan sighed in frustration, "Dammit. He'll probably be long gone by then." His voice had raised slightly above a whisper and JJ gave him a look.

Penelope stirred, half awake now. "Mmm what's going on?" She mumbled.

JJ gave Morgan another "calm down" look and he immediately forced himself to relax.

"Nothin baby, go back to sleep." He said, keeping his voice quiet and calm. He stroked her hair lightly, soothing her back to sleep.

She snuggled against him a little more and was asleep again within seconds.

"We'll talk about this later." She raised her eyebrows, daring him to object.

Morgan just nodded, not wanting to wake Penelope again. He rested his head back down on the pillow, his nose almost touching Penelope's hair and closed his eyes again. Despite having slept six hours, he was still completely exhausted. He felt like he hadn't slept at all and it was no struggle to simply drift off back into unconsciousness.

It wasn't long before JJ joined her friends in a deep, peacefully and extremely necessary sleep.

OOOOOO

Hotch looked around at his sleeping team members. He knew he should sleep too, but his brain wouldn't slow down long enough. He was exhausted, but somehow still restless. After an hour of just sitting there, thinking, he couldn't take it anymore. He needed to go for a walk, he stood up and walked to the door so quickly that he nearly collided with Emily Prentiss.

"Sorry!" She said a little too loud.

"Shh, Don't worry about it, feel like a walk?" He asked as quietly as he could manage. He glanced back into the room, Emily followed his gaze and nodded, realizing how loud she'd been

Emily took Hotch's arm and they started walking down the hall. When they were far enough away that they could talk normally, Emily released his arm at the same time that Hotch said, "How are you feeling?"

"Well I didn't have a stake plunged into my stomach so I'll take it."

Hotch chuckled a little, "Interpol hasn't changed you a bit."

"No, no not really, I do miss you guys a lot though. After this is all over, you guys definitely need to come to my place. I'd love to have the team stay in London for a few days. There's a hotel two blocks from my apartment. I have a few connections, I might be able to get you guys a discount." They both laughed.

"I'm sure the team would love that, especially Garcia." He smiled at the thought of giving her the news that the team was going to visit Emily.

"Yeah, but I think she might be more interested in visiting Sergio than me." Emily joked.

"Emily," Hotch said suddenly. "What you did for this team was amazing. We're all very proud of you. If you ever want a spot back on this team, it's yours."

Emily smiled sadly and shook her head, "I can't..."

"I know, I just want to make sure you're aware that the offer still stands."

"Thank you." She said. They stopped back in front of Emily's hospital room.

"What do we do now?" Emily asked. She had a feeling they hadn't found Thomas O'hare yet. Hotch would have said something if they'd caught him.

"We sleep and tomorrow, we catch the bastard."

Emily nodded and hesitated, unsure what to say now.

"I don't want anyone alone tonight. I'll sleep in the chair in here. With the unsub still out there, none of us is safe." He was worried about leaving anyone vulnerable since they had no idea where this guy was.

Emily didn't argue, there was no point. She just went to her bed and laid down, her muscles ached and she felt ready to sleep for months.

"Goodnight boss." She said smiling. She'd called him that for old times sake.

Hotch laughed and went to the chair. "Goodnight Emily."

He closed his eyes and settled in for the night with a smile on his face.

Thank god for his team, he thought. He couldn't imagine his life without them.


	18. Be Safe

Penelope Garcia startled awake, not recognizing her location. She looked around frantically and relaxed when she realized where she was. She glanced over at her sleeping friends.

She carefully disentangled herself from Derek's arms and got up. She would go see if anyone else was awake and then she would get some food and coffee because the team was definitely going to need it.

She peeked into Emily's room on the way to Reid. She was about to walk away when she noticed Emily was awake.

"Hey PG, how are you feeling?" Emily asked when she saw her friend peeking in.

"Better than I was yesterday. I'm still tired, but not exhausted." Penelope said quietly, entering the room and sitting next to Emily. "How about you, how are you feeling?" She took Emily's hands in hers.

"I'm okay. A little sore, but okay." She looked down at her hands.

Penelope raised an eyebrow and Emily's smile faded. "What's wrong Em?" When Emily didn't answer, Penelope put a hand on her friend's cheek. "Em, what's wrong?" She repeated.

"Come on, let's go sit down somewhere where we can talk." Emily glanced over at Hotch's sleeping figure. She didn't want to wake him just yet.

Penelope nodded, also glancing at Hotch and kept a hold on one of Emily's hands, helping her to her feet. "Cafeteria?" She suggested.

"Sounds great, I could really use some caffeine." Emily said and Penelope squeezed her hand, trying to comfort her obviously distressed friend.

They walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria in silence. Emily released her friend's hand and put an arm around her waist instead.

They picked out a table and Penelope made Emily sit down while she went to get them coffee.

OOOOOO

When they were both settled in Penelope asked once again, "Emily what's wrong?"

Emily took a deep breath, carefully watching Penelope's face for a reaction. She knew she wasn't going to take the news well. "PG, they haven't found him yet. Thomas is still out there."

Penelope's face paled and her hands started to shake. She put down her coffee and Emily immediately slid her hands across the table, taking her friend's shaking ones.

"He could be hundreds of miles away by now." Penelope said, her voice sounded strange and distant.

"We'll catch him. I'm waking the team in about a half hour, we're going back out. We will catch him, I can promise you that." Emily said, confidently.

"Yeah but when? How long before he hurts someone else?" Emily looked into her friends eyes and wasn't surprised to see tears there.

"We don't know, but we are going to keep everyone on the team safe. It's going to be okay, we're going to be okay. We always are." She kept a tight hold on Penelope's hands, willing her to remain calm.

They sat in silence for awhile, drinking coffee. Emily stayed with Penelope, holding one of her hands while she worked her way back to calm.

"What can I do?" Penelope finally asked.

"Stay with Morgan. He can't go out there in his condition, but-"

Penelope interrupted managing to smile a little, "but Derek Morgan is as stubborn as they come and always wants to be the hero. Don't worry he's not going anywhere, mama Garcia is going to make sure of that."

Emily laughed, "Penelope have I ever told you that I love you?" Only Penelope Garcia could manage to make her laugh right now.

"I think you may have mentioned it a few times."

"God I've missed you PG."

"I've missed you too Em, we all have."

"I wish I could stay, but I just can't." Emily thought back to interpol where they awaited her return. They'd told her to stay as long as she needed.

"I know Em, I understand, but I'll take what I can get. We are definitely having a girls night before you leave though." Penelope warned her friend.

"I wouldn't dream of leaving without one PG."

"That's my girl." Penelope hesitated, "I guess it's time. The sooner we catch this guy, the better."

They both stood at the same time. Emily and Penelope stared at each other for a moment before they stepped forward and threw their arms around each other.

"Be safe Emily. All of you, be safe." Penelope squeezed Emily tightly for a minute.

"We will, we'll be careful." Emily knew how much the tech analyst worried about her team when they went out in the field and had always done what she could to put her at ease. "I'll text you an emoji every hour...if that's what it's called."

Penelope laughed, "yes Emily, that's what it's called." She pulled back from her friend and wiped her eyes.

"And we're going to need you to be on top of your game if we're going to catch this guy." Emily reminded her friend

"Of course, expect nothing less from your tech goddess. I'll be right back." Penelope told her. She went to grab three more coffees and a bunch of doughnuts. She returned and Emily couldn't help but smile.

Emily took some of the stuff from Penelope to lighten her load, and hooked arms with her friend. "Come on let's go silly." They were both laughing when they exited the cafeteria.


	19. That's What I'm Afraid Of

Emily and Penelope split up and made their rounds, coffee and doughnuts in hand.

"JJ sweetheart, time to get up." Penelope practically sang. JJ groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

Penelope held out the coffee and handed her a doughnut.

JJ couldn't help smiling, "Penelope you are an angel, thank you."

"No problem my sweet girl, meet us in Reid's room when you're done." Penelope leaned down and kissed her friends cheek before exiting the room.

OOOOOO

Emily walked back to her room, which would no longer be hers very soon. Hotch was just beginning to stir when she entered.

"I brought coffee." She said smiling, knowing that would be enough to get him up.

Hotch's eyes opened right away. "What time is it?"

"It's almost nine." She said handing him the coffee.

"Come on, let's go get Rossi." She stretched out a hand to help him up. He took it and gave her one of his rare smiles. "Thank you Emily."

She smiled back, "no problem boss."

Once he was standing she released his hand. "You don't have to call me that you know."

"Oh I know boss." Emily said smirking, already walking away

OOOOO

When Emily entered the room, Rossi was already awake, Penelope in the chair beside him. He was drinking his coffee and was already halfway done with his doughnut.

Hotch entered behind Emily. "Good morning everyone. We need to come up with a game plan. Emily go talk to your doctor, make sure you're cleared to leave." Emily nodded and left the room to go find her doctor.

OOOOOO

"Okay, here's a map of the woods. They go for miles and miles in that direction, but there is an easy way to get into the city right here." She pointed on her laptop screen showing them.

"He probably went into the city, the dogs might be able to at least pick up his scent there." She pointed to a spot right at the edge of the woods.

OOOOOO

"All clear." Emily said, entering the room again, this time in regular clothes. She was glad to get out of that stupid hospital gown.

"All right guys let's go. Garcia go stay with Morgan and make sure-"

Penelope interrupted yet again, "to make sure he stays put. Don't worry I'm on it." She hugged Emily and gave the other two agents a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't worry Hotch, if anyone can keep Morgan in line, she can." Rossi said with a chuckle.

"I have no doubt." Hotch said, watching her leave.

OOOOO

"Okay, let's spread out. The police with dogs go in front. Spread out in all directions." He directed. "Go go go!" He commanded and everyone moved. They moved quickly and quietly.

They scoped out the entire length of the woods. So far there was nothing.

Emily pulled out her phone after an hours sending Penelope a smiley face emoji. She tucked her phone back away and focused back on the policeman she was following.

The dog started to bark. Emily noticed where they were. Hotch had filled her in on the way here and this was exactly where Garcia had said he might have gone.

"Hotch! Rossi! JJ!" She shouted. Her voice echoed through the woods and she heard three sets of footsteps running towards her.

"The dog picked up his scent."

She said when they were close enough to to hear her.

The dogs continued to walk. They were in the city now. The dog walked about two blocks and stopped.

"This is as far as his scent picks up." The officer, who's badge said "Barnes" informed them.

"He must have called for a cab. There's video surveillance in every cab and GPS tracking. Emily call Garcia, have her find out which cabs work specifically in this area. We need to find the driver who picked him."

"On it." Emily walked away to call her.

OOOOO

"There are about Thirty cabs that work this area."

"Okay ask Garcia to find out who was on last night between eight and midnight. That's probably when he was picked up."

"There were ten working last night." Emily repeated Penelope's words.

"Put her on speaker." Hotch told Emily. Emily pushed the button and held out the phone.

"Garcia, we need video surveillance for all ten of those cabs."

"Okay that's going to take a bit, hit you back when I have them."

OOOOOO

Penelope typed furiously on her laptop, every so often glancing over at her sleeping prince.

She was currently downloading four hours worth of video feed from ten different cabs and it was taking a frustratingly long time.

She set down her laptop and sighed. It was probably going to take at least a half an hour.

"You okay babygirl?" Penelope jumped.

"Derek Morgan you are going to give me a heart attack."

"Sorry baby, where's the team?" He asked sitting up.

"Out looking for Thomas." She knew what he was going to do and quickly got up, sitting on the bed next to him.

"Don't even think about it. You're not going anywhere."

"But Penelope I-" She put a finger on his lips, shutting him up.

"No, you need to rest, they can handle this. We need you better. Don't worry honey , I'm going to take care of you."

"That's what I'm afraid of." He said smirking.

"You know you love it. Nurse Penelope to the rescue." She laughed and so did he.

"Woman you are out of your mind." Derek leaned forward and kissed her cheek, knowing he wasn't going to win this one.

"Oh I know." She smiled and rested a hand on his cheek. "Now what do you need? Are you in any pain?" She kept staring at him as if she wasn't sure he was really here.

Derek just shook his head at her. "I'm okay Penelope. I'm really here and I'm really okay. Come here you crazy woman." He pulled her into a hug and she happily let him.

"What would I do without you baby girl?" He asked.

She held him tightly, not saying anything right away.

"Lucky for you, I'm not going anywhere." She said hugging him slightly tighter.

A moment later her laptop dinged and she laughed a little. "Well except to scroll through four hours worth of video from ten different cabs. Care to join?"

"Whatever I can do to help. Do you have your other laptop?" Derek asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course I do chocolate mousse."She hopped off the bed and went to her bag. She grabbed the other laptop and sent the videos from one to the other.

"Here, you take five, I'll take five." She said, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Beautiful, you've got yourself a deal. Let's nail this bastard." He said, grinning and giving her a kiss on the cheek.


	20. A Funeral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to post!! Then I will be working on the next one! It's up on fanfiction.net but I'm going to be making a lot of changes to it. Thank you for reading friends <3 :)

It had been one week since Thomas had escaped and although the team was extremely frustrated and wanted him found.

They'd found about five minutes of footage from him in the stolen cab, but the GPS system had been destroyed and he had creaky dumped the car for a new one. They had no leads and none of the team had been sleeping well. They were all staying at the BAU for the time being.

Reid however was not yet discharged from the hospital due to his severe head injuries. Morgan had been released after five days and Penelope had been watching over him. They took turns watching over Reid while they did everything they could to search for Thomas O'hare.

It was time to take a break from their search however, because today was Kevin Lynch's funeral. The team still didn't quite know what his role in the kidnapping of agent Morgan and was, but they were willing to forgive under the circumstances.

He was dead, he had paid for what he'd done and there was no use wasting any energy being angry with someone who was dead.

Agent Hotchner had spent a few hours last night convincing the doctors to let Reid attend the funeral. The hospital finally agreed with reluctance. He was only allowed out for three hours and they had to keep him in the shade as much as possible because the heat would make Reid's headaches worse.

The team was gathered in the round table room. There was about a half an hour until it was time to leave.

"I'm going to get Reid. I'll see everyone there." Hotch said, leaving the room.

OOOOOO

Penelope was quiet, more quiet than she'd ever been in her life. Her emotions were all tied up in a confused knot. Despite having made the decision to forgive him, there was still a little bit of anger left. She hadn't told the rest of the team about the discovery she'd made.

OOOOOO

Three days ago she was looking for information about his involvement in her office when she came across his bank accounts.

Kevin had made five deposits of $9,999 into an anonymous account only a few hours before Morgan and Reid had been taken. The deposits were made that way because anything less than $10,000 keeps the IRS off your trail.

Penelope had no doubts about where that money had gone. Kevin Lynch had paid Thomas O'hare and his brothers $50,000 to kill her friends.

OOOOO

"Hey Penelope, are you okay?" Rossi had noticed her strange silence while everyone else chatted away.

"Um yeah, I was just thinking about Kevin." She said quietly.

"Do you want to talk about it kitten?" Rossi asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"Not right now. Thank you." She said sincerely.

"Anytime kitten. If you change your mind you know where to find me."

She nodded and stood to go join her friends.

"No way, that can't be true!" Emily was laughing and Morgan looked confused. JJ was smirking at them and they all stopped when they saw Penelope.

"Oh Pen, I was just telling them about how Rossi showed up at your apartment years ago." JJ said, she started cracking up again.

"Oh my god Jayje that was private! I am so getting you back for this!" Her face had turned bright red.

"Oh lighten up Penelope, it was YEARS ago, even I'm over that." Rossi said from behind her.

Now the whole team was cracking up and Penelope couldn't help but join in.

OOOOOO

"How you holding up doll face?" Morgan asked, sliding and arm around his friends shoulders as they walked towards the spot where the service was to be held.

"I don't know. I don't know how to feel Derek. Everything's all confusing right now. I'm so angry, but also sad, and terrified. I just hate that all this is happening to us." Penelope spoke quickly, as if she'd been holding these words in forever.

"I understand that babygirl, things like this take time. It's can be difficult to process emotions when you're going through such a difficult time. Just remember we're all here for you Penelope." He leaned over and kissed the side of her head before pulling away, taking her hand instead.

Hotch caught up to them, pushing Reid in his wheelchair.

They were nearing the site that was soon to be where Kevin would rest and they slowed their pace.

"Hey smarty pants, how are you feeling?" Penelope asked, ruffling his hair lightly.

"I've had worse days, how are you?" He asked, looking up at her genuinely concerned.

"I'm dealing." Penelope shrugged, not knowing how else to answer.

"I'm always here if you need to talk Garcia." He said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze before releasing it.

"I know my boy genius, just one of the many things I love about you." She said giving him a small smile.

OOOOOOO

"I understand that we have a friend of 's that would like to say a few words." Penelope looked up from the ground she had been staring at. So far she'd managed to keep her tears to a minimum, but she knew once she started to speak, they would come.

She nodded and released Morgan and JJ's hands, stepping forward. She walked until she was a few feet from everyone, took and deep breath and turned around.

"Kevin Lynch was an amazing guy," she began, "At least the Kevin I thought I knew. We had our share of fights and we were one of the most on again off again couples ever in the history of the BAU relationships..probably because they're not allowed, but anyway that's beside the point." She paused when she heard a few chuckles in the crowd.

"Up until a few days ago I thought he was incapable of doing anything to hurt anyone. But the I found something out that changed that. I didn't really know Kevin as well as I thought I did." Tears were steaming freely down Penelope's cheeks now as she spoke.

"I learned things that make me wonder if he ever truly loved me, things that made me question everything we had, but despite all of that there are some things that will always be true. I loved Kevin Lynch, he once asked me to marry him and I turned him down, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I had said yes. No matter what Kevin did, he didn't deserve this. No one deserves this. I wish I could tell him this...and in some twisted way I still love him and...and..." Penelope stopped. She couldn't say anymore.

Her whole body shook as she started to lose any composure she had managed to hold on to. In seconds she was surrounded by her friends. Emily and JJ were hugging her tightly, both crying themselves, Morgan had a hand on her back and Rossi had a hand on her shoulder. Reid had grabbed her hand and even Hotch was standing close by as if ready to reach out if needed. Many people who were watching the scene also had tears in their eyes.

Penelope had never been more grateful in her whole life to have such amazing friends. Nobody said anything, they just let her cry and she held onto them as if her life depended on it.


	21. It's Not Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading Gone! I'm super proud of it and I couldn't have done it without my amazing readers! I love you guys <3

The next day the team went back to searching for Thomas...well all except one.

"She won't even talk to me JJ, I'm just worried about her." Morgan sighed and ran a hand over his head like he always did when he was stressed.

"We're all a little worried, but she's Penelope, she'll bounce back, she always does." JJ put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze before walking away.

Penelope had shut everyone out after the funeral. Emily had told her about the albums though Penelope didn't want to believe it. As soon as they'd returned to the BAU she'd shut herself in her little room where she had been staying with Morgan previously and refused to talk to anyone. She'd taken the albums with her. After seeing what was in them, she was horrified. She'd spent the day alternating between crying a sleeping, not wanting to think about what the albums meant.

Penelope felt bad about shutting her friends out, she knew they meant well, but she just needed a little time to herself. She needed to grieve in private. She also needed to finish looking through the albums no matter how hard it was. There may have been clues that only she would find. However, in her depressed state she couldn't bring herself to look at the rest.

The only people who hadn't tried to speak to her were Hotch and Rossi. They respected her personal space and knew that she would come out when she was ready. JJ had only come by a few times and Emily about the same. Morgan however had come by so many times that Penelope couldn't even keep track anymore. She'd stopped responding to him after the they'd or fourth time.

It was getting late and the team still had no leads. Hotch decided that they were giving up for the day. They'd been out handing out pictures and talking to nearby residents. They spoke to the driver of the stolen cab but he couldn't really give them much.

"I'm going to go see if-" Emily cut him off, shaking her head.

"Derek Morgan, you better not go there again. She needs time to grieve. Try again in the morning." Emily warned him.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Morgan questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Take my bed,I think I may be able to get her to talk to me." JJ said, coming up behind him.

Morgan looked at her and opened his mouth as if he was about to argue, but then stopped when he noticed her expression.

"Take care of her." He said, finally giving in, knowing he wasn't going to win this one.

"Of course." JJ said, feeling a sense of dejavu.

OOOOOO

"Hey Pen, it's JJ, please let me in. We don't have to talk if you don't want to, but Morgan took my bed so I don't have anywhere else to sleep." There were no locks on any doors in the BAU except for offices, however none of them barged into the room because they all had enough respect for her that they felt it would be wrong.

"Come in." JJ heard a faint voice on the other side and let out a sigh of relief.

She walked in, closing the door behind her before taking a look at the scene in front of her. Penelope was curled up on the bed, facing away from her. The photo albums were scattered on the floor as if they had been thrown there.

"Penelope honey, what can I do?" JJ asked her friend, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat as soon as she'd walked in and seen just how bad it really was.

JJ walked tentatively towards her. "Please Pen." She sat down on the bed and gently rested a hand on Penelope's back. She could feel the sobs that racked through her friend's body.

JJ did the only thing she could think of. She laid down and wrapped her arms around Penelope's shaking body.

Penelope didn't pull away, she accepted the comfort. She liked that JJ didn't expect her to talk and was glad it wasn't Morgan who had come in. Emily had said that she and JJ were the only ones who really knew what was in those albums. She didn't want Morgan to know about them, ever.

"It's okay pen, just get some sleep." JJ said, stroking her friend's hair and squeezing her tightly. A half an hour later both friends were asleep.

OOOOO

An hour later when JJ hadn't come back, Morgan went to check on them. He climbed out of bed and crept down the hall. He stood outside the door for a moment before opening it, just enough to peek inside. He smiled and closed the door again after a second, relieved that JJ had gotten through to her a little. He walked away as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake the sleeping woman.

OOOOOOO

Thomas O'hare

Thomas drove as fast as he could without looking suspicious. After a hundred miles he switched cars. He went for a nice little honda car that would easily go unnoticed. He didn't know where he was going, just that it had to be far enough away that he wouldn't be caught.

He knew he needed to take his time. It would be months before he could go back. He knew they couldn't stay together forever. The team would have to split up eventually and when they did he would know it was time. They couldn't hide in the BAU forever.

He'd hidden cameras at each of their houses on his way through the city, sneaking in quickly and quietly. He would know when it was safe to be back. And oh would he be back. He would be back with a plan that was better than anything he'd ever come up with. It was the best plan, only he'd need a little help, but he knew just the person who would do it.


End file.
